Election 2007 News
An interview with the proposed Town Hall
By Jennifer L. Saunders
This artist's rendering shows a conceptual sketch of the new municipal facility, proposed for land adjacent to Coventry Hall and the former Ice House in York Village. Voters will decide whether to move forward with the Town Hall plan at the polls on May 19.
Courtesy photo
YORK VILLAGE - Recently, Board of Selectmen Chairman David Marshall and local resident Sue Little, who are both serving on the Municipal Building Committee, discussed the needs and plans for a new Town Hall.
Article 73 on the warrant requests voters to approve bonding just over $6.5 million to fund the Town Hall project. The goal is to have the town's administrative departments, as well as York Parks and Recreation, all together under one roof.
From Municipal Building Committee members to the Board of Selectmen, all have agreed there is no question about the need, looking at the overcrowded conditions at Town Hall and the lack of organizational and filing space and even meeting space for the town's departments at the site.
"To me, the key element is absolute need," Little said. "You cannot continue to function from an early-1800s building that does not have the proper updates, that is not ADA compliant. That is the way public buildings have to be."
Little and Marshall have been working for several months with fellow committee members Fred Muehl and Mike Estes. School Committee member Mary-Jane Merrill had also served on the committee, but due to the implications of the forthcoming state education plan, the School Committee decided to withdraw from the municipal complex plan at this time.
One of the goals, both Little and Marshall said, is to honor the message the voters sent last May, when they not only approved the purchase of about six acres of land in York Village for a new municipal complex, but also the funding for preliminary design studies for the building.
The project, as proposed, will be subject to the full Planning Board review process, with many opportunities for public input before the final design is built, Marshall explained.
"The reason we're trying to put it all in one space is because the town government will work better that way, rather than having Town Manager Rob Yandow run around town to a different place to have a meeting," Little said.
In terms of office space, there are currently a total of 7,500 square feet of offices between Town Hall and other municipal department locations in town, which would be replaced with 9,000 square feet of new office space in a handicapped-accessible, Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant building within steps of the current Town Hall.
"Having come from industry, I've learned firsthand the more staff you have in the same location, the more valuable their interrelationships become," Marshall said. "All your different wings of government are much more likely to be working together, singing from the same sheet of music. From a management perspective, you have far better success working in the same location."
From there, he said, customer service and employee satisfaction will only grow, while the town can once again free the space at the Grant House for public uses and will retain the current Town Hall building for a use to be determined with citizen input and discussions with the First Parish Church, which owns the land itself.
The proposed Town Hall facility also includes a new meeting space for community events as well as town boards and committees.
"There is no place in town anymore to host a community breakfast," Little said by way of an example, sharing Muehl's input that, "If you're going to build a place, you should have this in it."
This space could be used by local service organizations, scouting troops, senior citizen groups and others and would augment the public meeting room at the York Public Library.
During the interview, Little and Marshall provided a wealth of information on the Town Hall plan proposed to the voters on the May 19 warrant, welcoming residents to "question" the Town Hall project as if it is a candidate for a town board or committee.
For example, the proposed Town Hall is seeking voter support at the polls on May 19 to provide a municipal complex to replace the outdated and undersized current facility. While the final appearance and design of the building itself is to be decided, the goal is to create a new Town Hall that fits in with the character of York Village and the nearby Coventry Hall.
The Town Hall is proposed as part of a five-year capital plan that was reached as a consensus by representatives from the Board of Selectmen, Budget Committee, School Committee and Tax Task Force.
The building includes 22,500 square feet of interior space with rooms for meetings, common areas required by law in such facilities, full accessibility, stairways and elevators, a basement level with community space and a user-friendly design for high-traffic offices such as the Town Clerk, Code Enforcement, Assessing and Planning.
With the two-level design, the entire building footprint is about 9,500 square feet, which compares to 13,000 square feet for the York Public Library, 11,000 square feet for the York Street Baptist Church and 8,500 square feet for the York Water District building.
Unlike the current Town Hall, the new facility will have a full basement as well as storage areas to protect important documents, and sufficient parking to accommodate regular public meetings and special events at the facility.
The proposal is also in keeping with the Comprehensive Plan, which calls for the town to "strive to retain the existing public presence in the Village Center area; the library, Town Hall and a post office. The location of a community's main public buildings greatly contributes to defining the center of a community."
However, the current Town Hall was built in the early 1800s, at a time when York had about 2,800 residents, Marshall noted, and "the inadequacy has been acknowledged and discussed for over 25 years."
His fellow selectmen agreed.
"I think this is the time to support a Town Hall. Let's check it off the list," said Vice Chairman Dwight Bardwell of the town's Capital Plan. "It is a desperate need for the town."
Selectman Mike Estes noted that the cost of the project will not decrease by putting the it off.
"The big ticket item, as everybody knows, on the ballot, is the Town Hall. ... It is a lot of money, but York has been a growing town," he said. "This town has failed to keep up with its needs."
Estes described the years of housing the York Recreation Department at the Star of the Sea Church and the other creative ways the town has tried to address its lack of space, such as using the Grant House for the Recreation Department offices.
"Everybody has taken care of the town needs except for the town," he said. "I think, as we go forward, this Town Hall is a reasonable plan to merge everything back together... I urge the people of the town to step forward. I urge them to support the Town Hall as it's presented to you. You will be proud of it when it's done."
