Proposed town hall site draws visitors

Proposed town hall site draws visitors

Positive input provided at Templeton open house
Doneen Durling
News Staff Writer

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TEMPLETON — Dennis O’Brien greeted people that flowed constantly through the doors Saturday at 252 Baldwinville Road, the proposed site for town hall operations.

Mr. O’Brien spoke of the project’s history since the original vote to appropriate funds in 2006.

 “The town voted to buy this building for $400,000, and then they appropriated $1.9 million to renovate it. Once we started working on it, (the state) changed the building code for the roof from 35 pounds per square foot to 53 pounds per square foot, so now we had to reinforce the roof. It increased the cost well above what was allotted on town floor. They disbanded the committee ... The committee was told that if the plans had been completed and approved, the project would have been grandfathered.”


Mr. O’Brien submitted a citizens petition to see if the town would establish a new seven-person building committee to use the already completed feasibility study, completed environmental study, and a completed engineered building plan appropriately scaled down for the rehabilitation and makeover of 252 Baldwinville Road as a town hall. The committee would consist of five citizens at-large, one member of the town’s select board and one member of the local Planning Board.

Mr. O’Brien said the newly proposed project was the work of a few of the original committee members who did not give up after the state changed the roof regulations. They got together and began to pare off the unnecessary extras such as the decorative canopy entrance.

“We chopped off about a million dollars of the original cost from this building by figuring out what work we can complete by ourselves.”

Mr. O’Brien explained the project could still be accomplished by following the state regulations, and the people hired would all earn the prevailing wage, but cost cutting included volunteers who have stepped forward to volunteer their skills.

“One is a contractor, and one is a carpenter,” he said. Most of us have some knowledge of what it will take. We will hire people. We can’t do everything. My hope is that when the people in town see some of us working on it, others will step forward to lend a hand. I think this has the ability to bring the whole community together.”

The group hopes the town highway department could complete some of the earth moving and landscaping work.

There is also a proposal to change the heating design to a more conventional system, eliminating a geothermal well field. The proposal is still up for discussion if it were determined a geothermal system would be the best long-term method of heat that provides savings over a period of time.

Mr. O’Brien said the project was receiving a lot of positive input from people.

“We are here to help the town and to try and get something positive for the town,” he added. “We spent five years looking for a place big enough in town that we could use. Every office in town will be in here. The big thing is this building is centrally located. It is almost the exact center of town. The best thing is you won’t have to go all over to pay taxes or whatever. It can all be done right here because everyone will be in here making communication so much easier.”

Mr. O’Brien said the sale of the building for the proposed price would lose the town $300,000 to $400,000 because of what has already been invested.

“This is the only building in town that is large enough to fit every one of our town offices,” he said. “It’s 12,000 square feet.

The May 23 2011 preliminary construction costs were $2,269,723. The proposed reductions by those driving the project will cut the figure by $633,907 and further reductions for contractor’s overhead and contingencies, bringing the final proposed figure to $1,255,816.

Resident Virginia Wilder has been on the project since its inception. She said the alternative to the site is the east Templeton Elementary School.

“It is 87 years old, crumbling into the ground, has a terrible mold problem that they can’t get rid of, and they will never fit all the town offices in it. They will all fit in here.”

Ms. Wilder said that by combining all the offices into one as opposed to the multiple buildings housing the town offices, the town could save in heating costs, lease or rental costs, electricity costs, water and sewer costs, and insurance. The estimated savings was more than $112,800.

The design plans are awesome,” she said. “You won’t even recognize it when it is done.

The Special Town Meeting will be held Wednesday, Oct. 23 at the Narragansett Regional Middle School Auditorium at 7 p.m.

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List of Documents Regarding 252 Baldwinville Rd.

The documents listed below have been gathered over a long period of time. In order to access the individual documents in the list, they will need to be downloaded and then the blue links will open the documents.

252 Baldwinville Rd (for Senate Bill 623)

List of Bids for 252 Baldwinville Rd

Financial information for 252 Baldwinville Rd

The $1,980,500 was borrowed as a short term loan. The Town of Templeton will pay back $143,920 in FY 14 for this project; $147,950 in FY 15; $152,092 in FY 16 ; $156,351 in FY 17 and finally pay off this note $160,729 in FY 18. There is NO money for this project.

Please VOTE NO on Article 5 and Article 6