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01/09/2019 07:30 AMThe Town of Guilford Facilities Task Force, on the job for just a few months, already has one recommendation ready for the public: Level the building next to the Community Center and establish more parking.
Task force representatives Gary MacElhiney and Barbara Casey came before the Board of Selectmen (BOS) on Jan. 7 to discuss the goals of the task force and present the initial recommendation.
The task force was formed in September to analyze how well the town uses its facilities and to help plan for future space needs. Selectmen had pointed out that certain immediate issues like parking needs, the state of the Public Works Department garage, and a lack of space for records storage prompted the need for a taskforce.
MacElhiney said the task force had taken a tour of all town facilities and is currently finalizing a survey that will go to all department heads. The survey, along with interviews of department heads, will try to assess what the needs are across town.
Casey said in addition to collecting new data, the task force is working to sift through all prior studies commissioned on various buildings in town.
“We found there are a lot of other studies and efficiency reports that we could take advantage of, so we now have this huge stack of information,” she said. “One of the first things we are going to start working on is organizing it, which hopefully will help the town as well, so this information is in some sort of order that people can search. That’s a major task.”
Additionally, Casey said the goal is to make this project or final report as comprehensive as possible so that it doesn’t just get tossed on a shelf. She said the task force will solicit public input sometime this spring and is also trying to work with other committees or task forces across town.
“We are going to try to coordinate with other town task forces,” she said. “There is one going on right now called sustainability, which we really want to be involved with because they are looking at a lot of the same things we are looking at.”
MacElhiney said while a lot of recommendations won’t come until further down the road, the task force is ready to make one recommendation now.
“Our recommendation for today involves 52 Church Street, which we have owned for a while,” he said. “It’s timely in the sense that it’s winter and some decisions have to be made regarding winterizing it. The conclusion we have made and our recommendation is that the building be prepped for demolition.”
The town formally approved the purchase of the parcel known as 52 Church Street in April 2018. First Selectman Matt Hoey previously said the town, the Parks & Recreation Department, and the Land Acquisition Commission had looked at this property for years and the property was available for a total sum just shy of $500,000, which was be paid from the Land Acquisition Commission fund. The purchase of the property was approved outside of the budget because the commission fund is separate from the general fund and has its own dedicated revenue stream.
The building currently on the property is a 2,500 square foot home that was once used as a dental office. However, the town took interest in the property not so much for the building as for the land. Early estimates show the 0.58 acre parcel could help add parking for the community center where the number of building users vastly out numbers available parking.
“The building is inadequate for further consideration and there are just too many problems with the roof, heat, cellar, multi-level construction issues and we don’t see that will ever be useful for a town purposes,” said MacElhiney. “Beyond that we would recommend that the lot be prepared for temporary parking and use for the park and rec or town employees.”
Down the road, MacElhiney said he could see the town replacing the building once the task force finishes all its work, but for now he said the best plan is to demolish the building and try to open up more parking sooner rather than later. MacElhiney also had a rough cost estimate to share with the board.
“The number for demolition and creation of a parking lot is just shy of $200,000 and that’s doing the parking lot right with drainage and so on,” he said. “That’s for the demo and paving.”
Lots of factors such as site plan approval, cost, and the fact the building is in the historic district have to be considered before any decision is made. If approved, the lot without a building could add roughly 55 parking spaces and the lot with a building of similar size to the current structure could add roughly 30 to 35 parking spaces.