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Facilities director urges quick action on town space, recommends using 28 Garfield Street and Chapman Street
Summary
Facilities Director Joe Salomon told the council the town lacks adequate office, workshop and storage space across departments and recommended prioritizing use of 28 Garfield Street (the OFI building) for EOC and storage, with human services as a high-priority occupant of first-floor space.
Facilities Director Joe Salomon presented a high-level assessment July 14 documenting widespread space shortages across Newington’s departments and proposed near-term and multi-year options to address them.
"As staffing, services and responsibilities expand, the available square footage often fails to keep pace," Salomon told the council, outlining that offices average about 50 square feet in town buildings versus 125–225 square feet industry standards and that many workshops, garages and records-storage spaces are inadequate for current needs. He said the town added roughly 75,000 square feet with the 2023 purchase of 28 Garfield Street, which could be used for an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and other departmental space.
Salomon described the planning steps he recommends: form a working group with department heads and managers, vet retention and digitization rules for records, evaluate code and grant constraints for reuse of 28 Garfield Street’s basement space, and develop phased options that could be completed in 2–5 years. He warned that some choices — for example, siting public-facing human services within an EOC — will require safety contingency planning and code work before occupancy.
Councilors pushed on practical details: whether departments had been surveyed (17 of 19 provided input), whether digital records could reduce storage demand (yes, but retention rules complicate an immediate conversion), and the timeline for finishing grant language tied to the EOC (waiting on federal approvals). Several councilors suggested making human services a high priority for the OFI space because of privacy and program needs, and asked the town manager and staff to assemble cost-fit plans and next steps.
What the council asked staff to do next: convene a multi-department committee to refine priorities, return with detailed fit-out options and code analyses, and supply any available cost estimates or grant-match implications for council review.
