NORTH STONINGTON — Residents in North Stonington will be asked on Monday whether to approve a $90,000 appropriation from the town’s designated American Rescue Plan Act funds to make the final payment for demolition of the one-story wing at the North Stonington Education Center.
If the town is willing to approve the measure, officials said it would allow the project to close at an end cost of $1.07 million and without any direct funding from local taxpayers, something that was a goal for the town from the start.
“If $90,000 goes through at the town meeting, then there will be somewhere in the low $200,000s left in the ARPA,” First Selectman Robert Carlson said as the Board of Selectmen issued the call for a town meeting last week. “With that payment, it would be the final payout and bring the project to a close.”
The question was one of two sent to a town meeting last week as members seek to gain approval for both the use of ARPA funds to finish the project, as well as the use of $50,000 from the town’s undesignated fund in order to buy a used 75-foot ladder truck, nicknamed Quint, from the town of Colchester.
Both questions will be up for a vote at 6:30 p.m. Monday in the media center at the North Stonington Education Center, 298 Norwich-Westerly Road. The meeting will also be available for viewing online through Zoom, but those votes will only be recorded for those attending in-person.
For the town, closing the project out at the current cost would represent a considerable increase in initial projections while still keeping final costs well below other bids.
According to Carlson, who has kept the town updated at each meeting throughout the process, between the next lowest bidder over the course of two different bid periods in 2020 and 2022 and the final project costs after overruns, the town saved approximately $250,000.
This savings came as officials pushed to assure the single-wing portion of the building was taken down.
While there will always be those who second guess town decisions, Carlson praised the town’s ability to finally bring the project to a close at the lowest possible cost. He said during a previous presentation that the property as a whole had become a financial liability to the community and was no longer serving a purpose, especially after an initial lease agreement for the entire property fell through and the town received no additional bidders.
“People could argue that we shouldn’t have taken the building down, but what would that have cost us? And what would we have done with that space?” Carlson asked.
To be able to close out the project and still have some ARPA funds remaining is a best-case scenario for the community, officials explained, and the costs were further reduced thanks in part to a contract re-negotiation with the project manager that had already saved the community $140,000.
While he would prefer to retain additional ARPA funding, Carlson said completing the project for under $1.3 million, the next lowest of either set of bids, should be considered a win.
Completion of the project marks the end of a lengthy process that began when the town approved demolition as part of school renovations several years ago. During construction, however, other issues forced reallocation of funds, and efforts over nearly two years to find a tenant were not fruitful, leading to a well-supported decision in 2022 to move forward using ARPA funds.
The project was met with several hiccups, including the need to relocate water lines to separate the school from neighboring Wheeler Library, as well as repositioning a second line in order to avoid freezing. The town also addressed a soil contamination issue after heating oil leaked underneath the former middle school wing, as well as repairing an exterior wall to meet standards.
“Basically what we’ve done is the town wanted the building down, and we brought it down and I think we did it for a quarter million lower than any other bidder, and that includes those four years ago,” he said.
For more information including documents related to the meeting, or to attend virtually, visit the town’s website at northstoningtonct.gov.
