Walk-through of former Amenia Elementary School building, July 12, 2010

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Wayne Euvrard led a group of about 12 persons on a tour of those parts of the former school building that will be used by the Town: auditorium, gymnasium, town clerk’s offices, supervisor and secretary’s offices, court business, assessor’s and planning board offices, meeting room, and so forth. The tour lasted about 40 minutes. Many questions were raised and discussed.

The following are my own impressions and conclusions, many based on the points raised.

• It is clear that the building could be an enormous asset to the town. There are many very fine spaces. In general, the condition of the hallways, rooms and toilet facilities seems to be acceptable, though painting, cleaning and a number of modifications will need to be done.

• Allocations of space to individual town offices have been made. Some wiring for additional power outlets and computer terminals has been accomplished.

• The lack of adequate air conditioning will need attention. There is ample parking at the south side of the building, but access to the building from the parking area is via a long flight of steps. Easier access from a new parking lot to be constructed in front of the building will probably be required. Several of the office spaces will require new construction of partitions, cupboards, and the like. Some of the carpeting will require thorough cleaning or replacement. Every effort should be made to acquire grant funds to pay for the reduction of heating and cooling costs, most probably by installation of solar equipment.

There exists no document identifying all of the moving-in and physical reconstruction tasks to be accomplished. This speaks to the need for what Darlene has called a listing, detailing, prioritizing and costing of a “scope of work.” The Town Board should have such a document before deciding whether it will indeed be wise to move all of the offices in one swell foop as soon at the beginning of August. As of the moment, it seems to me that it would be wise to move offices one at a time over a longer period, say a month or so, as necessary construction, painting and cleaning is completed in each space. One month’s extra rent paid to the Fire Company ($2,500) is a negligible price to pay for an orderly move.

I would very much like to see an estimate of the building’s annual maintenance cost to the Town: janitor, routine physical maintenance, insurance cover, depreciation allowance, etc. Also, a realistic estimate of what could be expected by way of net receipts from renting out unused space. We don’t want to see a potentially wonderful asset become a serious extra burden on taxpayers.

Harold Noah — July 12, 2010