Tonight the Board of Aldermen had a special meeting regarding the issue of Waterbury’s historic City Hall. At tonight’s meeting Mike O’Conner from the Waterbury Development Corporation presented the city with five options for dealing with the center of our local government. Each option had its benefits and its detriments, with the quantity of each depending on which side of the political spectrum you sat on. Fortunately for those of us who believe in supporting the cities historic buildings, the options that seemed to garner the most support and interest were those that focused on the appropriate restoration of City Hall.
Anyone involved in last November’s referendum knows that the complaint heard most often by the voters focused on a lack of information. With that in mind I am going to post tonight the notes from the meeting, as I gathered them. The original documents regarding this issue will be available at wdconline.org after 2/2/2007.
Option 1 – This is the dreaded option of abandonment. Without rehashing the arguments posted before regarding the need to preserve our sense of history and our architectural monuments, there are several financial options that need to be noticed. Firstly, abandoning City Hall would require the following expenditures from the city. $768,000 per year in rental costs for the office space to hold the city employees. It will cost $100,000 to move these employees and the city records to a new location. Lastly, the city will be forced to spend $300,000 per year to keep the utilities on in City Hall to prevent it from decaying any further. Also, according to WDC estimates, the cost of construction is going up at approximately 8% a year. Therefore, a project that would have cost $40,000,000 in 2007 will cost $50,388,000 in 2010. It seems that there is quite an extensive cost to doing nothing.
Option 2 – In this case the WDC entertained the notion of selling City Hall to private development. They were unable, however, to give any idea of just what City Hall would sell for, if it ever sold. The WDC are not magicians after all. Furthermore, the costs detailed above would still be an issue while the building was on the market.
It seems quite clear to anyone reading that these two options have serious flaws. Quite frankly, I believe that the only reason the WDC even mentioned these options was due to a vocal minority who insist on believing that these options are worthwhile.
Option 3 – The Bare Minimum. In this case the city would spend $22.2 million to simply fix the fire code violations on the first floor and in the basement. They would have this work completed in such a way as to allow the city to continue it’s work at a later date (and a higher cost). Major flaws in this particular option are the fact that the city would still have to pay almost $400,000 a year in rental costs, as this plan would leave the city still needing almost 37,000 square feet of office space. Furthermore, this plan makes no attempt to maintain the historic courtyard in front of City Hall, with its majestic marble and fountains from yesteryear.
Option 4 – Restoration While Keeping the Firehouse. This option calls for the city to completely renovate City Hall, while keeping the Fire Company 10 stationed in the building. This option is a decent compromise, as it does not displace the firemen who work there, it honors the history of the building and the city, and it maximizes the space available. This option is not perfect, however, as the city would still need to rent over 12,000 square feet of office space. This particular plan has an estimated price tag of $35.8 million.
Option 5 – Restoration While Moving the Firehouse. If the city moved down this path Engine 10 would be moved out of the historic City Hall and into the maintenance facility that is currently housed next door. This plan has the largest price tag, at $39.1 million, but it seems to be the best compromise between the city and the Fire Department. With the Fire Company only being moved next door there will be no impact on the engines response time to a call. This will obviously alleviate any public safety concerns that had been raised over the original plan. That plan called for Engine 10 to be moved to a West Main Street location. Furthermore, with the space that was being used by the Fire Department now available for office space the city has more then enough room to move all of it’s departments in. This will save the city any future rental costs that were currently being paid for the Sovereign Bank building.
There you have it readers. The options before the Board of Aldermen, with my own personal opinions added in. I have made no secret what I feel should happen to City Hall, and I hope that now you have seen the facts you will share in my convictions. The Board of Aldermen is next meeting on February 5, and I hope you will come and join me in supporting the restoration of City Hall.
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