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Council hears $13.5 million conceptual public works facility plan; informal split on placing bond on ballot
Summary
Consultants presented a conceptual $13.5 million public works facility plan including office, main barn, wash bay and expanded salt storage; councilors raised cost, process and necessity questions, producing an informal 4‑4‑1 split on whether to put a bond question on the ballot.
Consultants and staff presented a preconceptual site layout and a cost estimate for a new public works facility, including office space, a 20,000‑plus square‑foot main building, an equipment storage appendage, a wash bay and expanded covered bins for aggregate and salt. Regina said the current concept estimate is about $13,500,000 and staff provided an estimated per‑household impact ($299/year for a 20‑year term; $259/year for a 30‑year term).
Rick Hamlin walked the council through the site plan and operational needs: retaining the salt shed, adding bays for salt storage, covered roofs for aggregate bins, a temporary work building for crews during demolition and construction and a heated area for the "Super Sucker" vacuum truck during construction. Rick explained the site grid represented underground stormwater storage chambers required by current stormwater infiltration rules and said the plan is placeholder to identify cost items.
Consultant John Alden compared regional projects (Milton, Saint Albans, Berlin, Swanton) and said buildings of this type have reported square‑foot costs that varied by delivery method and included site/infrastructure costs; he cited a building‑only conceptual rate of roughly $275/sf and warned permitting and inflation could push construction into 2028.
Councilors pressed on cost‑control measures and procurement options; several advocated for a construction‑management delivery to provide early pricing input. Councilors also asked what would happen if a bond failed; staff said there is no 'Plan B' and that the project’s need is widely acknowledged, but acknowledged voters will decide whether to fund it. Regina then requested a straw poll of council direction; the informal tally was four in favor of placing a bond question on the ballot, four opposed, and one undecided, giving staff guidance to continue refinement ahead of any formal vote.
Quotes from the meeting capture the scale and tradeoffs: "For a 20 year term, that is approximately $299 for an average home in the city," staff said when summarizing household impacts, and Alden noted comparables and delivery considerations: "The building is 1 component, but the site work and all of the rest of the infrastructure and utilities is another."
