The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Municipal center location settled
EAST HAMPTON >> After 35 years of discussion, debate and delay, the Town Council has chosen a site for a new Town Hall/police station.
The council this week voted 6-1 to accept a proposal from Stephen J. and Lisa Motto to locate the complex on a 5.4-acre parcel within the Edgewater Hill development. The Mottos are the owners of Dream Developers, the builders of the mixed-use project off Route 66 at East High Street and Laurel Ridge.
In opting for the Motto proposal, the council passed up one from Ronald and Linda Wallace to instead locate the new building on an 8-acre parcel off Bear Swamp Road.
Stephen Motto told the council a 32,000- to 40,000-square-foot municipal building will cost an estimated $15 million to construct and will take 24 to 30 months to complete — if residents approve the plan.
The council has scheduled interviews next week with candidates to serve on a nine-member building committee, which will be tasked to hire an architect to create conceptual drawings and a preliminary design of the proposed new building. Town officials hope to present a proposal to residents at a town meeting well before year’s end, Town Manager Michael Maniscalco said Tuesday.
If residents do approve the project, it will end a prolonged discussion that began in 1982.
Police Chief Sean D. Cox, who was sitting in the rear of the meeting room in Town Hall in the company of Sgt. Timothy Dowty when the council voted, said he was “stunned” by the outcome. “This is definitely a step in the right direction,” East Hampton town councilors review the proposal to locate the Town Hall/police station complex on a 5.4-acre parcel within the Edgewater Hill development. and “will be welcome news” for his officers, Cox said.
Officers have chafed under the conditions of the current cramped and inadequate police department. What’s more, having lost their parking lot to an expansion of its neighbor, Eversource, police are forced to change into and out of their uniforms in a satellite facility more than a mile from headquarters.
The already frayed morale of officers was not helped when a sewage drain became clogged and backed up in December, spewing euphemistically termed “grey water” into the station. That necessitated first steam cleaning much of the interior and then installing a new floor in portions of the department.
Cox said he was 12 years old when newly hired Town Manager Alan Bergren was told in 1982 to find a solution for a new police station.
“This was a long time coming,” Cox said of the council’s decision.
Construction of new Town Hall/police station will also get the town out from under a cloud of potential litigation caused by the fact the current building — built in 1946 — is not accessible by the handicapped. Last year, the council intensely studied and debated a proposal to convert the historic Center School into a municipal complex housing all town offices, possibly including the police department and the Board of Education. The council ultimately rejected that proposal, however, as estimates of the cost of renovating the school to accommodate the town offices topped $50 million.
The Mottos propose building the new municipal complex as at least a two-story and possibly a three-story structure on the southwest edge of the Edgewater Hill property, adjacent to Lake Vista Drive. Placing the building at that location “is going to drive the economic engine of this whole place,” Stephen Motto said of Edgewater Hill.
At one point, the Mottos suggested the town consider a lease/buy arrangement for the new building. However, Director of Finance Jeffrey M. Jylkka rejected that suggestion, saying, “Our rate to borrow is always cheaper.”
The Mottos had also suggested they choose the architect and contractor for the project, ideas that were rejected by the council. However, Stephen Motto was successful in winning council approval to serve as construction manager/ owner representative for the project.
If the project does in fact cost $15 million, Motto said he would be paid $400,000 for acting as the rep.
Even though the decision was made Tuesday, the die was cast last week.
In November, after abandoning the Center School plan, the council solicited proposals for new sites. Eight were submitted and then “scored” by each of the councilors. During a review of the proposals last week, five councilors gave the Mottos’ plan their highest possible scores.
Tuesday, Councilors Ted Hintz Jr. and Mark Philhower expressed varying concerns about the Motto proposal.
Philhower said 1,000 building permits have been issued by the town and will, if used, result in a bulge in school enrollment, possibly necessitating either building a new school or expanding Memorial School some time in the future.
Councilor Melissa Engel sought to refocus the issue, however, saying, “Right now, we have an extreme immediate need” to address the issue of a new Town Hall/police headquarters.
Hintz objected to the location of the Motto proposal, which is 1.4 miles east of the present Town Hall. Moving to the new location at Edgewater Hill is “pretty much driving a nail into the coffin of the Village Center,” he said.
Consequently, Hintz voted “no” on the proposal.
Philhower joined the council majority in approving the Motto proposal.