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FinCom hears four Town Hall alternatives, committee proposes $56,000 ICON study
Summary
The Tisbury Town Hall Building Committee presented four alternatives to a $32 million High Point Lane plan and asked FinCom to fund a $56,000 ICON Architecture contract extension to explore smaller or renovated options; the Select Board postponed a decision until March 24.
Rick Homans, chair of the Town Hall Building Committee, told the Tisbury Finance and Advisory Committee that the previously promoted 17,000‑square‑foot High Point Lane town hall — estimated at $32,000,000 — was unaffordable and four alternatives should be studied. The options included a no‑frills truncated new hall (which would remove a large meeting room), a smaller modular building on West Williams Street designed for future expansion, renovating the Katharine Cornell Theatre with additional trailers to house offices, and taking no action and accepting deferred maintenance and ADA deficiencies.
The Committee asked FinCom to support extending ICON Architecture’s contract by $56,000 to develop cost and design alternatives and avoid wasting prior work. Mark McKevitz of ICON cautioned that as buildings shrink, per‑square‑foot costs can rise, reducing the expected savings of a smaller project. Committee members discussed buying and retrofitting an existing house (the Captain Gilbert L. Smith House at 70 Spring St.) or renting the already ADA‑accessible temporary 8,000‑square‑foot library space at 15 Church St. as interim measures; ICON estimated renovating a residence typically saves only about 5–8% versus new construction because of foundational code upgrades.
The Tisbury Select Board postponed any decision on funding the study until its March 24 meeting. The Building Committee framed the study request as a step to consolidate failing, inadequate modular offices, address accessibility problems under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and create functional workspaces for staff without locking the town into the previous high‑cost plan.
Next steps: the committee seeks Select Board direction after its March 24 meeting and detailed cost options from ICON to inform FinCom and the warrant for Town Meeting.
