No deadline date had been announced at press time, but current occupants of Suffield Town Hall were getting ready to move to their assigned “swing space” so renovation work can begin. Contractors QA&M and Gilbane say that planning is on schedule; conceptual drawings have reached the point where construction drawings began in mid-November. And careful evaluations of the estimated costs are still within the $5.1M remaining of the $5.2M authorized. Demolition and reconstruction work can carry through the winter, as most of the work is inside.
Plans now have several departments moving to temporary quarters on Ffyler Place in the rooms recently vacated by the Kent Memorial Library. Tentatively, Town Clerk, Tax Collector, Assessor, and possibly the Registrars will share that space, including some vault space for the Town Clerk. At the November 7 meeting of the Permanent Building Committee, interim vault planning had not been finalized
The Finance office is to move temporarily into the Senior Center, occupying the old chapel, now the Center’s library and meeting room. First Selectman and Human Resources will return to 230 Mountain Road. Departments now at 230 will remain there, with some relocation and loss of a meeting room during Town Hall renovation. Youth services and Parks & Rec will remain in the Town Hall Annex on Mountain Road. Considerable effort has been devoted to clearing out files and other storage to reduce space needs.
The one facility in the Town Hall that will remain in place through the project is the server room. There has been some discussion of how to maintain access to the facility.
Details of the new office layouts in the renovated Town Hall have reached the point where specific furniture locations are being determined. Room assignments are still as described in earlier reports, with some changes in corridor layout. Plans continue to include a new, concrete vault for the Town Clerk, added to the south side of the present lower level meeting room. It will be considerably larger than the current vault, but exactly how much larger is uncertain.