10/2/07- Renovations to C’ville Town Hall improve service, work conditions

I am posting this because it's funny (after you read the 10/4 C-S article, that is).

(As published by the Cortland Standard, Evan Geibel reporting).

In the space of one year, the town’s Raymond G. Thorpe Municipal Building has doubled in size and working conditions have also improved.

The $1.6 million project to expand the town hall and town court facilities from 5,000 square feet to 10,000 square feet began in September 2006 and was substantially complete last month.

The project was funded with $500,000 that the town had in its reserves, and the remainder was paid for via a bond anticipation note, a short-term bond that the town can pay off within the next five years.

A central corridor runs between the addition and the original building, with windows opening into the town clerk’s office and an antique wooden water line is currently on display.

The addition of a 5,000-square-foot court facility, which will also accommodate meetings of the Town Board and other boards, was completed in February and the town departments have been moving around the construction workers ever since, and vice versa.

Supervisor Dick Tupper said that although keeping the employees working in the building through construction might have tacked on a few months to the project, it did not disrupt employees’ routines to any great extent.

Only the outside walls of the original building, the roof rafters and the concrete floor were retained in the essentially brand new structure, which Tupper said has a one-year warranty.

The Town Hall at 3577 Terrace Road was built in 1962 and received an addition in 1986. Tupper said the building was still under construction when he became supervisor in September 2005, with much of the ceiling unfinished, temporary construction lighting providing illumination and asbestos tiles underfoot.

He expects the new building to meet the town’s needs for at least the next 30 years.

The building is very energy efficient, utilizing geothermal cooling — via the 42-degree water from the nearby municipal well — automatic switching between heating and air conditioning. It also is equipped with low-energy light fixtures.

“The people that installed it told me that we should have roughly the same utility bills for twice as much space,” Tupper said as he sat in his new office Monday afternoon.

I wonder if the County Administrator spoke with the Cortlandville folks about project cost. I see that this addition of 5,000 square feet to the Town offices cost $1,600,000. I can't imagine that a 4,000 square foot DMV will cost the $400,000 to $500,000 Mr. Schrader has claimed, do you?

Ask your Legislator to get the cost figures for the project! I am sure they are in the same file that was used for the South Main Street project and the County Office Building generator.