Working Group Trims CFAL Renovation Estimate Down To $5.98M, But Will Project Achieve Goals?

CHATHAM – The good news is that an ad hoc working group assembled to evaluate the planned renovation of the Center for Active Living has a new estimate that trims the project cost to $5.98M. The less-good news is that the amount is still about $1 million more than the $5 million appropriated by town meeting and could require abandoning some of the key features of the renovation.

 Estimates received by the town in early October hinted that it might cost as much as $7.6 million to renovate the existing senior center on Stony Hill Road, but a new estimate, based on more detailed specifications, was received on Oct. 24 that projected the cost at $5,980,979.

 “I’m not sure that there’s any meaningful costs that can be cut or refined to get us into that $5 million range,” Owner’s Project Manager Rick Pomroy told the working group on Oct. 29. The group was set to meet again this Wednesday — after press time — at which point it might be ready to make its recommendation to Town Manager Jill Goldsmith. The actual cost of the renovation won’t be known until contractors bid on the job.

 The estimate presented on Oct. 29 removed some components of the project, including the expansion of the parking area to the west, which was presented as potential add-ons to the project. Pomroy said if the parking improvements are seen as critical to the project, he recommends making another component, the removal of support columns to make program areas in the basement more usable, as an add-on.

 The renovation of the CFAL’s kitchen, which was not included in the original $5 million appropriation but was subsequently added by the project team, was also removed from the latest estimate.

 Working group member Bob Stello, a building contractor, worried that removing some of the items from the project might increase costs to the town in the future.

 “I know we’re in a situation where we’re trying to make something work financially,” he said. But if the kitchen expansion is removed from the project now and the space is used for other purposes, it will be more costly for the town to renovate the kitchen in the future, he said. “I would think the kitchen would be one of the most vital rooms there is,” Stello said. A more detailed estimate is needed to narrow down the costs of materials, he added. The goal of the project is to ensure that the CFAL is usable years into the future, and the team should avoid reducing costs in the short term if doing so will only make maintenance more expensive in the years ahead, Stello argued. “What’s going to happen five years down the road? Three years down the road? This is an important building,” he said. 

 Pomroy said the design team is not including all elements of a full building restoration in the project. If every desired improvement were included, “you’d almost have to look at the building as a full gut, a full renovation, rather than just renovating the areas that we’re touching,” he said. And the original goal was to try and add as many needed features as possible to the building without doing a full renovation, he said. “Where do you stop when you’re doing improvements?” Pomroy asked.

 Select board member Stuart Smith, a member of the working group, said it’s important to be forthright with voters that the revised project, even at $1 million more than the $5 million appropriated, won’t deliver the features originally proposed.

 “Even under this scenario, we have to go back to town meeting. And these questions are going to come up,” he said.

 Council on Aging Chair Patricia Burke said in other towns, projects get a bid with a firm number before the town seeks funding from voters, but in Chatham, voters are presented with project estimates “which may be right or maybe not,” she said. 

 Principal Planner Terry Whalen said actual designs are needed to provide that level of detail. “You would need to spend close to a half million plus dollars in design,” he said. “How much do you spend? Because you could lose all of that money” if town meeting rejects or modifies the project, he said.

 Burke said her priority is simply to get the renovation approved and underway, even if it is a scaled-back version.

 “Yes, we would like to have the best kitchen we can have. Yes, we would like the Falmouth COA, the Nantucket COA. Sure we would. But we’re never getting those, ever, ever, ever,” she said. 

 The working group was expected to seek consensus on the components that should remain in the base project this week, and if they reach agreement, they could make their recommendations to the town manager, who would present the plan to the select board.