RYE -- A group of residents is bringing a second option to the ballot in March for consideration of the Town Hall and have said it will be more cost-effective in the long run than a town-sponsored article.
The citizen petition article is to see if the town will authorize selectmen to raise and appropriate a gross budget of $3,048,077 to raze the 1800s Town Hall building and construct a new one in its place. The petition was submitted with 43 supporting signatures. The proposed structure was designed by Rye resident John Loftus and architect Robert A. Schaefer of R.A. Schaefer & D.M. White, Architects, after an article passed by town vote in 2017.
Last year’s ballot had an article to renovate the current building with attention to historic features for $3.2 million and another to rebuild it with a similar design for $3,386,000, but both failed. An article to refurbish the exterior of Town Hall and make it handicap accessible for $500,000 also failed. The only article to pass was for Loftus at no cost to residents to create a design for a new town hall. Loftus said he wrote the 2017 warrant article to allow him to dedicate the year to studying the project further.
“Last year, I was not happy with the designs for the renovation or the replication. I thought we could do much better and I thought we could do it cheaper,” said Loftus, who then volunteered his services.
Loftus has a degree in marine engineering. From his studies he learned other kinds of engineering such as architectural, structural, civil and mechanical. Now retired, he said he was a builder for 25 years near Albany, New York, and specialized in building new houses that looked 200 years old. He’s been published in publications such as Custom Home, Better Homes & Gardens, and Fine Homebuilding. He and his wife moved to Rye about 10 years ago and he was a member of the most recent Town Hall committee.
Loftus’ plan is competing on the 2018 town ballot against the warrant article recommended by the Board of Selectmen to purchase TD Bank’s former 500 Washington St. for an annex to the Town Hall for a gross budget of $624,800. If approved by a 50 percent town vote, it would raise the tax rate by 25 cents per $1,000 of property value for one year only. The plan would be to move a few town departments there, such as the tax clerk and assessing department. The majority of Town Hall employees and volunteers would remain in the current building, which was built as a church in 1839 and became Town Hall in 1873.
Loftus said this is neither the lowest cost long-term solution nor the best resolution. “It doesn’t solve any of the problems that exist in the old building,” he said.
While selectmen said the TD Bank building could be used for residents to conduct their town business using the existing drive-through, Loftus doesn’t feel this is a selling feature as many people conduct business online these days.
He said the purchase of the bank building solves some Town Hall space needs, but doesn’t solve health hazards or lack of code compliance, including with the American Disabilities Act. Loftus said the bank building is low energy efficient and taxpayers would become responsible for maintaining two Town Hall buildings.
He referenced a report RPF Environmental did at the request of the town in 2014 about the current Town Hall.
“They went through the building and identified a lot of different things. Carcinogens, asbestos and other things,” Loftus said. “There’s also a mold problem, and one of the things they cited in their report is even if they go into remedial work during a renovation they’re never going to get all the mold out, and the mold spores will probably regenerate.”
Town Administrator Michael Magnant said the report was done in 2014 as part of a proposed major renovation to Town Hall not approved by voters.
“They identified asbestos and lead paint, but that’s not unusual in an old building,” Magnant said, adding as long as these are contained they’re not hazardous. He said he did not see any mention of mold in the building, nor did the report state there was any type of health hazard to employees.
“The asbestos, I would say, is mostly contained, but if you break some of the tiles loose then it’s floating around in the air,” Loftus said. “It only takes one person to file a suit that we’re not ADA compliant. So all those things still exist and they’re not going away. What do you get? Something you have to do again later.”
Loftus said the proposed new building is a New England colonial that looks 200 years old but will be built for 21st century office needs with proper office space layouts. It will be energy efficient and set back farther from the road than the current building and he’s redesigned the parking lot to create a one-way traffic flow that will loop around the building, he said.
Loftus met with each of the Town Hall employees multiple times and specified things based on their needs. “I went in and measured their desks, their file cabinets, their bookshelves. I figured out exactly what they needed,” he said.
Loftus said his plan would allow town employees to continue working in one building, while the Town Hall would remain on a historic site.
“I hired my own architect, a New Hampshire-licensed architect, to check the code issues and put it into CAD (computer-aided design),” he said. “I’ve expended a lot of time and a lot of money to bring it to where we are today.”
Loftus said his estimate includes hard and soft costs with a 10-year bond. Soft costs at $593,000 are for things such as the architect, structural and mechanical engineering, site work, costs for moving the office in and out, rental space for employees during the construction phase, insurance and a contingency fee. The balance would pay for hard costs of construction for the project.
“It’s a well-thought-out cost for this project,” he said, adding his design is about $336,000 less than the budget for last year’s warrant article to replicate the Town Hall.
“In addition to that, we’ve added in a huge cellar, 750 square feet, and increased the specification of the project. So they’re saving in both ways - in what they’re getting and their money,” he said.
Loftus said another problem with renovating the current Town Hall is that the height of its windows dictates the height of the ceilings. Originally a church, the large windows create the 19-foot ceiling on the second floor, which he said does not heat well and allows private conversations to carry over.
“I understand their emotion,” he said of people’s hesitance to razing a historic building, “but not all old buildings should be saved.”
“Based on prior votes, people don’t want to spend that kind of money to renovate the old building,” he added. “They recognize that it’s not where they want to put their tax dollars.”
Resident Joe Tucker, a supporter of Loftus’ warrant, has worked in construction since 1974 and agrees. “As a builder and a long-time resident of Rye, I’m well aware of the shortcomings of the Town Hall,” he said.
Tucker said renovating the existing building would mean taking more out than would remain and it would prolong the Town Hall issue. He likens any renovations to putting a Band-Aid on problem areas. Tucker said besides the lack of code compliance, “the building is worn out and it was never designed to be a town hall.”
Loftus said he’s gained a lot of local support, including four prominent builders in town in addition to Tucker. Loftus said collectively they have more than 200 years of construction experience. He also has other residents campaigning for his proposal.
Ann Malpass said she was an advocate for keeping the historic building until she heard Loftus’s proposal. “Having lived in older houses, when you start to dig in you run into so many problems,” she said, adding the proposed new town hall makes more sense.
Resident Frank Drake agrees. “It sounds good and it feels good to save the old building, but it’s just seen its day,” he said.
As a warrant article is a citizen petition, it needs 60 percent of the vote to pass.
“I hope people seriously consider it,” Drake said.
Loftus and his supporters have upcoming information sessions including Saturday, Jan. 27 at 1 p.m. at the Rye Public Library. For more information, visit www.ryetownhalloption3.com.