At last night’s (July 16) Board of Selectmen meeting, the subject of Town Hall repairs was one of several important topics discussed.
The discussion is a reminder of the juggling act the BOS and other Town officials are performing: trying to address immediate health and safety needs at Town Hall while also strategically planning for over $100 million in other needed projects over the next 10-15 years — not only at Town Hall Campus but other municipal buildings and the schools — all while being mindful of the costs to taxpayers.
Needs and Priorities
As far back as 2022, the BOS began planning for the most urgent Town Hall repairs, which include the front entrance, windows and boiler replacement. Those plans were put on hold while the municipal building needs and space assessment endeavored to take a Town-wide view of the needs.
Soon after taking office, First Selectman Toni Boucher became particularly vocal about her desire to repair Town Hall as a top priority.
As the BOS’ effort to begin tackling the repairs ramped up, voters at the Annual Town Meeting in May approved a bonding referendum for $1,585,000 to pay for the needed upgrades.
At Tuesday evening’s meeting, Assistant DPW Director/Facilities Manager Jeff Pardo asked the BOS to approve $16,400 in funds for additional design work in order to incorporate a few more of the identified needs that fall just outside the scope of work — for example, water infiltration in the basement.
The selectmen approved the request, after some discussion about previously approved funds and where funding for the new request would come from. CFO Dawn Norton confirmed the cost could come from the bond issue, which was always intended to cover the design work of the Town Hall repairs.
Tuesday night’s decision to proceed with the design planning is taking place in the context of a larger effort to prioritize remaining critical needs beyond this fiscal year. In June, BOS created the Town and School Needs Assessment Priorities Committee (TSNAP) to help delve into and prioritize the long list of remaining projects that would be slated for FY 2026 and beyond.
The committee’s charge was “to analyze the needs assessments” and “to serve as an advisory board to the Board of Selectmen with regard to the setting of project priorities.”
The TSNAP committee held its first meeting last week (July 10). At that meeting, Boucher surprised some committee members when she said she expected the committee’s focus would be “short-term” — focused on making recommendations for the next fiscal year and disbanding after this summer.
That was something that Selectman Bas Nabulsi — who also serves on the advisory committee — brought up at Tuesday’s BOS meeting, saying he would like to discuss that point further. He requested an agenda item be added for the next BOS meeting to discuss the “mission and scope” of the committee in order “to make sure the guidance that is being given to the committee is aligned with the Board of Selectmen’s expectations.” Boucher agreed to the request.
But beyond the question of a short- or long-term role, the advisory committee’s initial discussion touched on a potentially bigger question about planning for Town Hall.
Renovate or Teardown and Rebuild?
At the July 10 TSNAP meeting, committee member and Board of Finance Chair Matt Raimondi posed the idea of whether Wilton should consider tearing down Town Hall if new construction were found to be more cost-effective. (Boucher was temporarily out of the room when the discussion was taking place.)
Several committee members indicated the idea a worthy one.
“I just want to say for the record, the chair of the Board of Finance just came up with the best idea that I’ve ever heard of,” Knickerbocker said.
Pardo seemed prepared for Raimondi’s question. He told the committee,
“I discussed that with Toni and other people as well, and the feeling is that the front of the building is so beloved by the town, no one would accept it. I said, ‘Toni, I could recreate the front exactly the way it looks. I can even save the facade, but it’s cheaper to recreate’.”
Pardo went on to say that Boucher had asked him about Town Hall expansion possibilities other than those previously contemplated, and in response, he had raised the idea with her to hire a consultant to explore the rebuild idea. He relayed to the committee what he told her.
“I said [Boucher’s expansion idea] might be a possibility, but I said, ‘If you’re going to spend $15 million on that, for God’s sake, tear the building down and build new, [because] the rest of the building is still a building from 1935’. You’re never getting away from that. No matter what you do, no matter what addition you build, that existing building is still a building from 1935.”
Pardo also reported he had already spoken to at least one consultant about the possibility of studying the question of whether to expand Town Hall or rebuild it. (He noted the consultant’s quote was $25,000, and other bids could be obtained.)
Echoing Pardo’s comments, TSNAP committee member Rich Santosky said, “The question of new construction versus renovation is a good one to ponder,” and generally speaking, “I think it becomes more costly to do renovations than it does to build new because of the unknowns” in such an old building.
When Boucher returned to the meeting, she pushed back on the idea of a teardown and new construction, saying it would be “like six times the cost of what we could do in an addition or fixing what we have.”
Raimondi responded to Boucher’s comment by repeating the fundamental question.
“So that is one of the questions — what [is] the cost? Maybe it is six times. Maybe it’s half. Who knows?”
The advisory committee’s second meeting, scheduled for today (July 17), was cancelled. GMW inquired about the reason for the cancellation with the committee chair Patti Temple and will update this story with any new information.