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04/18/2017 04:45 PMThe roof over the Arts Barn located at Town Campus is leaking. While there is little doubt that something needs to be done to fix the roof, the conversation at the Board of Selectmen (BOS) meeting on April 10 over how much or which section of the roof needs to be replaced quickly devolved into a party-line debate over policy and procedure.
The Arts Barn, which is home to—among other things—Madison Cable Television, has been in need of a new roof for at least four years. The roof was first slated for replacement in fiscal year 2013-’14 under the former LOCAP program, which became the Capital Improvement Program (CIP), for $85,000. After numerous bidding issues and review by an architect, the project to replace the roof was finally awarded to Streamline Roofing Services, LLC in December 2016 for $89,000. At the time, only $75,000 was designated in CIP for the project and was approved with the understanding that a special appropriation would likely been needed to cover the full cost.
However, at the BOS meeting, former BOS member Joan Walker (D), who stepped down from the board in December 2016, brought the project back into the spotlight. She said while she thought the contractor and the project had been settled, she noticed via an ad in this newspaper that a new request for bid had been issued for the Arts Barn roof.
First Selectman Tom Banisch (R) said that a new request for bid had been issued because the initial bid approved in December 2016 exceeded the funds designated to complete the project. Banisch said he wanted to see if there is a way to get the project done under budget.
“In the process of fixing one of the many leaks on the roof, the people who did it gave us a price on fixing just the flat roof, which would solve the problem and come in under budget, so that is why we are going out to see if that can come in cheaper so we can get it done,” he said.
The Arts Barn roof has sections that are flat as well as a slanted or slant roof section. While Banisch said fixing the flat roof might solve the leak issue, Walker said doing just the flat roof—or doing the slanted roof further down the road—might cause some issues.
“My concern is that the cost savings of not doing something…from a risk standpoint in the future if the slant roof does need to be modified and something happens to the flat roof because it is not the same contractor—you could void any warranty by doing that,” she said. “I am not saying that is going to happen, but it is a risk.”
While town officials went back and forth over the history of the project and what work actually needs to be done, the conversation turned to how the new request for bid appeared in the paper. Selectman Al Goldberg (D) said while he understands why Banisch wants to find a way to complete the project under budget, changing the scope of the project by replacing only the flat part of the roof rather than the whole thing without speaking to the whole board was the wrong move.
“I certainly don’t proclaim to be a roofing expert, but I am much more concerned about our approval process here,” he said. “We had a scope of the project and Tom [Banisch] I understand that you wanted to go with a different approach and I praise you in being creative in thinking of other ways to do things, but at the same time I think we are ignoring the process that was set up to develop these projects and I feel that when we ignore the process, we are disrespecting the process, the charter, and all of the people who are participating in making this decision.”
Goldberg said Madison is the government of the many and not the government of the one. He said this is not the first time Banisch has gone his own way with projects without consulting the board, referring to road reconstruction last year and current issues with the town baseball field.
“There has been no consultation, no communication with this board that we are going off in a different direction,” he said. “Once again, your selectmen read about this in the newspaper. That is not the way this process is suppose to work. You should have shared your thoughts with us here at this table in front of the camera. I applaud your motivation, but it is how you are going about it.”
Republican members of the board disagreed with Goldberg. Selectman Bruce Wilson (R) said he takes no issue with Banisch trying to find a more cost-effective way to do the project.
“I am struggling to understand how the first selectman working diligently to present us with options...is not honoring the process,” he said. “I don’t see a decision taken here, I don’t see money spent—I see discovery work going on.”
Banisch said in light of recent fiscal challenges he wants to find a way to bring the project in on budget.
“From the time we voted to the time we were going to start in the spring, a lot of things changed,” he said. “The governor’s budget came out and a lot of things have changed relative to our fiscal situation. With all of the leaks we are having, it seemed like we could find a quicker and cheaper and better way to do it and we wanted to look at that.”
Banisch said once the second set of bids come in the full board will still have a chance to decide if the town should go with the original bid approved in December 2016 or go with a new bid.
“The fact of the matter is it [the roof] was leaking in 2013 and it is still not fixed in 2017,” he said. “I am trying to get something done. We will have two options and the BOS will have another bite at the apple to decide what they want to do.”
Regardless, Goldberg said the board should be careful moving forward on this issue.
“We are already on record saying the whole roof should be done so if we are going to change our minds about this, we should do so with great caution,” he said.