The town's Municipal Building Committee was scheduled to vote this week to recommend designs for the renovation of Town Hall and for the expansion of the senior center at the Hildreth House. If the recommendations are approved by Selectmen next Tuesday, Jan. 10, the committee will have completed one of its most significant tasks.
But first, committee co-chairs Peter Jackson and Wade Holtzman must convince a majority of the Selectmen that their work satisfies that board's criteria for the project, and they must also persuade members of the finance and capital committees that their choices offer the most cost effective way to house Harvard town government – its employees, its programs, and its volunteers – in Town Hall for the next 20 to 50 years.
The vote was planned to take place at this week's regular meeting of the Municipal Building Committee on Thursday evening, after the Press went to print. According to the agenda, members of the committee were to first hear a presentation by the town's architect, Drayton Fair of LLB Architects, in which he compares the costs of the three designs for Town Hall that the members favor.
The three designs are known as Scheme 1, Scheme 2 and Scheme 4 (earlier drawings of these schemes are available at the town website: www.harvard.ma.us ). They resemble each other in their treatment of the main Town Hall building, but differ in their handling of its badly deteriorated addition. All three designs preserve the current outline and traditional entrance of the 1872 building. Scheme 4 preserves the current addition, with its octagonal shape and rubble foundation, while Scheme 1 replaces it with a new and slightly larger one. Scheme 2 is nearly identical to Scheme 1, but with a little more floor space.
"I think it's going to be a choice between 1 and 2," Jackson told the Press Wednesday morning. He said that the estimates LLB provides Thursday will likely confirm that it is cheaper to replace the current addition than to "rehab it." The "code stuff" Jackson said–the new toilets, stairs, and elevator needed to make the building code compliant–will be the same for all three designs. They're also the most expensive elements.
"Once you've decided to replace the old addition," he said, "it becomes a question of how much space you're willing to pay for in the new one."
Jackson said he favors "grabbing as much [space] as we can" while costs of construction and finance are still cheap. But other members of his committee may have different opinions.
As for Hildreth House, committee members have already agreed informally that the design known as "Scheme 3" is the best way to expand the former summer home to better accommodate the needs of the growing number of seniors in town. The scheme features a ground-level entrance, an outdoor patio, and a new addition with dining hall, multipurpose room, and kitchen. The addition has so far avoided controversy because of plans to fund its construction with private donations. But as with Town Hall, what appears now to be a consensus must also be confirmed by a vote Thursday.
As the building committee prepared to make its decision this week, co-chairs Jackson and Holtzman were also dealing with requests from two other town Boards.
First, the Board of Selectmen last week decided to fill two positions on the seven-person committee that have been vacant since late summer (see sidebar). Jackson said he doesn't believe the committee needs more members, but the vacancies have been posted on the town website and seven candidates had already responded by noon Wednesday, the deadline for applications.
And Capital Planning and Investment Committee Chairman George McKenna has asked Jackson, Holtzman, and Drayton to appear before his committee this week to answer questions about the cost and scope of the project. According to the capital committee agenda for Thursday, members were to first meet at 5 p.m. to discuss the building committee capital request, and then adjourn to Town Hall to listen to the LLB presentation and observe the building committee vote to choose final schemes for Town Hall and Hildreth House. After the Municipal Building Committee meeting, according to the agenda, the capital committee was to reconvene to question the building committee.
As of Wednesday, Jackson told the Press, the capital committee had not told him or Holtzman what questions it planned to ask.