LEBANON — Upcoming renovations to Lebanon City Hall will largely focus on repairing the building’s aging roof and replacing its failing heating and cooling system.
But other priorities, such as plans to move the planning office to the top floor and proposed security upgrades, will be on hold after the City Council last week declined to spend more money on the renovation project.
Councilors on Wednesday deadlocked over a request to allocate another $2.82 million on the building improvements, and ultimately decided to move forward with a scaled-down effort using already-budgeted funds.
The $3.3 million set aside for the project is enough to tackle the building’s most urgent needs, they said, adding that further expenses should wait until the next budget season.
“We know that City Hall needs work. There’s a lot of deferred maintenance,” Mayor Tim McNamara said of the decision Friday. “Nobody’s questioning that working conditions are not ideal there. But I think right now we just want to do the things that we need to make the building function better.”
The City Council’s move to request bids for a few improvements — repairing the roof, installing a new heating system and moving the IT department into the second floor — came at the end of a roughly three-hour meeting that saw councilors and the city’s administration butt heads over the best use of taxpayer money.
City Manager Shaun Mulholland argued that renovations, which were first proposed in 2005, could be cheaper if councilors approved the additional money rather than making upgrades piecemeal. Construction costs typically increase 5% every year a project stalls, he warned the group.
Mulholland also advocated for city staff, who he said deserved to feel comfortable and secure at work.
“The simple fact is that we’ve got people who are living in a basement, and I don’t know about you, but I’d rather be able to look out the window,” he said, referring to a proposal to move planners and code enforcement officers up to the third floor, where the City Council and other boards regularly meet.
Mulholland and architects with Concord-based firm SMP Architecture laid out a $6.37 million project they said would fix many of City Hall’s ailments.
Proper insulation would decrease energy costs, while a new roof membrane and repairs there could stop leaks and prevent water damage, they said. The architects also proposed a new HVAC system to provide proper heat (the current system failed twice last winter), and secure spaces for employees to interact with the public.
But councilors said a supplemental appropriation, made outside of the normal budgeting process, should be considered only for emergencies.
“I don’t feel like this is so urgent,” Councilor Sue Prentiss said of the office plans in an audio recording of Wednesday’s meeting. “I feel like the safety of the roof, the structural issues, I think those things are urgent.”
Councilor Karen Liot Hill took issue with the proposed phasing of the renovation, which sought to refurbish interior spaces before repairing the heating system.
“I’m finding myself very unenthusiastic about this project,” she said during the meeting. “What I would have hoped to see would be a phase one that addressed the highest-priority issues, and instead what I see are phases that don’t seem to reflect the priorities that we laid out.”
However, Councilor Clifton Below implored the group to think of the overall project as an effort to make City Hall sound for another 100 years, not just short-term fixes.
“I think we do need to look at the bigger plan,” he said. “I wish we were able to do more comprehensively (to seal and insulate) the large portion of the envelope that isn’t in the budget, but this is already a big budget.”
While the City Council plans to request bids on the scaled-down project, it also hopes to discuss the renovation more frequently. Mayor McNamara said Friday that some of the group’s pushback was likely caused by infrequent updates. They last saw plans in November, he said.
“We didn’t feel like we were fully engaged and invested in what was being proposed here,” he said.
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.