Oak Bluffs voters will once again decide on a new town hall project, this time with a $13,380,344 price tag.
Selectmen heard from Ned Collier and Stephen Moore of Icon Architecture, who shared a video rendering of the proposed town hall project. The project would keep the frame of the current town hall, but adds a new floor, a new selectmen’s meeting room, new entrances, completely redesigned department offices, and other significant changes.
In March, selectmen selected East Falmouth–based Dellbrook JKS as its construction manager at risk (CMAR). Dellbrook JKS worked with Icon Architecture to come up with the $13.4 million cost in advance of the annual town meeting on June 16. By having a CMAR, the town was able to establish a maximum project cost for voters to decide on.
The decision for a CMAR comes after a lengthy and failed process to build a new town hall. In 2017, town voters approved $9.8 million for a new town hall, but the following year, two separate bids for the project came in over budget, the last being as high as $11.1 million. A vote to approve an additional $1.3 million was shot down by voters at a special election in November. Town offices have been located at the former Oak Bluffs elementary school since 2000.
“The cost has come in a little bit higher than what our comfort level was when we first started,” town administrator Robert Whritenour said, but added that interest rates are low now and that construction costs will just keep rising: “It’s actually a much better time now to move ahead economically than it was even a year ago.”
The full price tag of the new project was set at $14.3 million, but selectmen decided to not include fixtures such as a backup generator, geothermal heating and cooling, additional landscaping and stormwater infrastructure, and a standing seam roof, which knocked off $936,900. Whritenour said these extras were something the town could add in the future if desired. There is also room on the roof of the proposed project to add solar panels.
If approved at town meeting, construction would most likely begin on Oct. 9, with a completion date of September 2021.
Closing Circuit Avenue to cars
Oak Bluffs may see Circuit Avenue closed off to car traffic on the weekends this summer.
As the coronavirus pandemic upends businesses and events, towns are coming up with creative ways to help keep the Island economy running. At Tuesday’s meeting, Ritz owner Larkin Stallings and other town business owners spoke with selectmen about potentially closing Circuit Avenue to car traffic and opening it as a pedestrian-only zone from Friday night to Sunday night.
“What I’m asking for is an opportunity for those of us that have been hurt the most by the pandemic. Those of us in the restaurants, those of us in small retail. Give us a shot at getting something caught up on this,” Stallings said. “All we’re asking for now is a little bit of leeway.”
Stallings also said it would give people the ability to actually socially distance themselves.
While several downtown businesses were on board with the idea, including the Oak Bluffs Association (OBA), which voted to recommend the street be closed, there were some dissenting voices. Corner Store owner Luke Debettencourt and Phillip’s Hardware co-owner Donna Leon said closing down Circuit Ave., even on the weekends, would hurt their businesses.
“It’s very clear this is not an easy decision to make,” OBA executive director Christie Todd said. “There are businesses that are affected positively, businesses that are affected negatively.”
Todd added that Reliable Market would also have to sacrifice some parking spots which they depend on.
Selectmen decided to hold a public hearing at their next meeting, Friday at 3 pm, to give others a chance to express their views. While Stallings requested the whole weekend, after discussion, selectmen felt it was best to try only Sundays first.
In other business, Oak Bluffs restaurants looking to expand to patio or outside seating on their property can now apply for town approval through an alteration of premises application.
If restaurants already have outdoor seating as part of their license approved now, they will not need to get new approval from the board of selectmen. All restaurants have to go to the board of health before opening, to be certified.
Through Gov. Charlie Baker’s order, the public hearing process for alteration of premises has been waived, as well as the Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission approval.
“All that needs to happen is the application goes to the board of selectmen, and the board of selectmen is able to approve that,” Whritenour said.
Selectmen scheduled a meeting at 3 pm Friday to approve several applications.
Let’s see, 9 million approved, now they want 14 million; I guess math isn’t a strong point for town leadership. Time for Wrottenhour to go!
Can you do it better?
Oak Bluffs Town Hall
I’ve been involved with the effort to “do” Town Hall since 2012. There have been several studies, presentations, Town Meeting and ballot votes, Planning Board reviews, MV Commission referral, bids and rebids. But for an unfortunate decision by the Board of Selectmen to require an unnecessary debt- exclusion ballot vote in November 2018, Oak Bluffs would have moved into a new Town Hall in April 2020 for a total cost of $11.1 million. Included in the bid price was increased parking, improved drainage, betterments to School Street, and connectivity with both the Library and Public Transportation.
I have followed with considerable interest the purchase, planning, and review of the Red Cat building on Kennebec Ave, particularly with-regard-to the owner’s decision to build new versus renovating an historic building. I support that decision. Would that the same owner have used the same logic and bully pulpit with-regard-to the taxpayers’ money for the Town Hall.
The current design takes a broken, insignificant structure and promises to turn it into a building with architectural features of a gentrified tenement in South Boston. Contrast it with the surrounding structures of the Library and Good Shepherd Parish building. Certainly, it will be up to code and the layout sufficient for current day Town business. But for fifty years does Oak Bluffs want an expensive, out of character, eyesore at the corner of Pacific Ave and School Street?
Many questions remain. As of today there are real cost numbers for this proposal. $13.4 million, only 18.5 percent more than the $11.3 million bid contract in November 2018. What features will be shortchanged to preserve the illusion of “cheaper to renovate”? Will the site work for the renovation remain under the purview of the DRI decision by the MV Commission? Will the vastly different economic environment of 2020 and uncertain future impact the willingness of Town voters to support any project? These are questions for Selectmen to answer before asking the voters to consider gentrification of 55 School Street. I watched the video presentation.
I don’t support putting lipstick on a Pig.
Meanwhile, the housing crisis has only gotten exponentially worse.. the drug crisis is out of control.. but hey! Look at this shiny waste of money! Good riddance.
What housing crises, there are at least 1,000 houses for sale on the Island.
Those who can not afford them should leave.
Drug crises?
Islanders are too smart to be that stupid.
This is why we can’t have nice things.
Would you like to have a nice Town hall?
They cost lots of money, just like all the Island real estate.
Actually, I thought I was posting this under the article about Adam Epstein’s discontinued plan for the VH dining In the park, which I was very sorry about. I have no opinion about this topic.
It’s the voters in OB.
They never know when a gift horse looks in their mouths.
Pay up now.
How does closing down Circuit Ave help business? Do you think anyone wants to go to a store where you can’t park nearby? This is over thinking at its finest.
On season people come to Oak Bluffs to see, be seen, and to buy.
They do not come to be honked at and driven over.
Circuit Ave, sans cars, can accommodate hundreds if not a thousand of people.
People spend money, cars do not.
People shop all the time when you can’t park near by.
Think how far many mall stores are from the nearest parking spot when the mall is busy.
Yeah, that’s what the Vineyard is all about. Shopping. You people have lost your way.
Which Circuit Ave businesses have gone on the record opposing the closure?
Or are you just wishful thinking?
What a bright idea, close down Circuit Ave so people who come to Oak Bluffs to see, be seen, and to buy.
The perfect 1/2 a mile of the OB main drag to spread CV-19 from all the hot spots from where those folks are running from!
Plus the majority of people who gather there are the ones who are more susceptible to catching and spreading the CV-19 Virus.
People have always come to Oak Bluffs to see and be seen.
That will not change.
Closing the street to cars, will allow the people on Circuit Avenue to spread out and increase social distancing.
Am I the only one who doesn’t understand what closing Circuit Ave would do?
I’m thinking that all the people you’re trying to attract won’t come with the elimination of, what, 75 parking spaces.
Or are the going to park cars in Waben Park and expect people to walk?
“Do you think anyone wants to go to a store where you can’t park nearby?”
Yes, they are called shopping centers and pedestrian malls.
They are quite popular throughout the world.
Particularly in resort destinations.
The closing of Circuit Ave is not a smart move. It most definitely won’t bring MORE business to the area. In fact, as some businesses have point out, it will hinder business. Haven’t our Main Streets suffered enough?
No, Shuttle bus just like Edgartown.
And most everywhere else with high density.
most likely people will cut through the campgrounds that wont be good
Why is that bad?
So voters shoot down 12 million for a new town hall, and town leaders come back with 13.3 for a refurbished town hall. What kind of a clown show is this? People are losing their jobs, businesses and worse – how the heck can the TA say it’s a “better time than ever” to be spending 14 million on an item like this?? A monument to fiscal irresponsibility.
The problem is that good people like OBjohn refuse to take leadership positions in town.
That is why we have such bad people.
As usual, O.B. is way over its head. Did they learn NOTHING from the new library?
Oak Bluffs: This is the island of Martha’s Vineyard, REMEMBER??? This is not a major metropolitan area. For God’s sake, this building proposal is completely inappropriate for the island!!!
Too appealing?
HEY OAK BLUFFS,
SPEND YOUR MONEY WHERE IT’S NEEDED — ON AFFORDABLE HOUSING!!!!!!
You like the Vineyard lifestyle?
Pay for your own housing.
Stop sucking your needs out of the taxpayer.
the part i don’t get is my notion that the town hall is needed to hold the offices for the town departments employees. but from the rendering, all we see is a lot of glass and a balcony, looking like a huge hotel lobby. is all that supposed to be a waiting area? is all that necessary? all we need is a building with offices for people to do their jobs. i wouldn’t want to pay for this huge waste of space.
Are you thinking of something like the Soviet featureless raw concrete, that is essentially windowless, style of architecture?
Super cheap to build, Goodale’s has all the materials.