By Sarah Opdahl

At their Tuesday, March 26 meeting, New Fairfield’s Permanent Building Committee (PBC) heard a detailed presentation on the status of the Town Beach House project. Town Engineer Mr. Tony Iadarola, who oversees  the project, attended  the PBC meeting to secure buy-in for pricing out elements of the project, which includes items for both the original design and a scaled-back version that will serve as a more functional space, stripping pricey elements that add character or increased uses. Another option he presented was possibly shoring up and lightly upgrading the current building.

Iadarola explained the process that led to the high estimates for the first design of the project, currently 30% design development drawings, first presented at the September 12, 2023 PBC meeting. He said, the project is tracking at upward of $1.8 milli on, which widely outpaces the current budget of $800,000. Though he tried a few avenues to cut costs, the ones which ultimately made the biggest budgetary impact will either entail building a spare new space that will function similarly to the way the beach house does now, with some changes, or to simply provide a light renovation to the existing building.

PBC members la mented the loss of character but underst ood the need to adhere to the budget. Though they originally questioned the need to price out the original version, since it is far out of the budget’s range, they agreed that pricing for key add-ons would be helpful, in case there ends up being room in the budget to add items back in. Iadarola said, “We can’t build what was originally envisioned, it was a great plan, but at this point, it comes down to cutting back the scope, cutting back some of the anticipated use of the building such as that community room and going back into more of a bare bones necessity and providing a building that sufficiently meets their use.”

In the revised new beach house building proposal, the lower-level work would be eliminated, providing only cold storage, and all functional spaces would be on the upper floor, including two new bathrooms. PBC members questioned the fact that the building wo uld be going from five bathrooms to two but learned that two bathrooms are enough to meet code and not all of the current bathrooms are operable. The community room on the main floor would be eliminated, as well as many windows, and elements that would have allowed it to be a four-season building. It was noted that framing could be placed to allow for future windows and other improvements. In both versions, new or renovated, the space would be made compliant for accessibility with a lift either inside or outside of the building.

In school building news, Colliers International’s Mr. Mark Schweitzer explained, with April break coming up, much work is being planned for the schools. There is a potential fix for an ongoing fume hood noise in some classrooms that will entail putting the fume hoods on disconnects, allowing the air to be diverted through the fume hood or, if it is closed, it would go through ceiling exhaust grills, which is  much quieter. JCJ Architecture’s Ms. Christine O’Hare noted that a letter was received from the acoustic consultant saying that the decibels do not need to meet state statutes for sound, given that the statutes specifically says ‘excludes equipment and built-in equipment,’ which fume hoods fall under.” In addition, third party sampling for the ongoing propane issues at the high school is being pursued. Schweitzer also said that work to fix the elementary playground’s surface and equipment is also slated to resume, if the weather is cooperative.

O&G’s Mr. Joe Vetro described a busy site at New Fairfield Middle School, finalizing the work that was needed following the demolition of the old high school. They are also preparing to complete the parking lot behind the Middle School.

The next regular Permanent Building Committee is scheduled for Tuesday, April 9, 7:30 p.m.