Fire company extends lease on Town Hall to Oct. 29

AMENIA — The Amenia Fire Company will allow the town of Amenia to continue renting out the bottom floor of its firehouse on Mechanic Street until Oct. 29 for use as its Town Hall. That gives the town an additional month to complete its move to the former Amenia Elementary School building.

But it’s not going to be known as the former schoolhouse for much longer, town Supervisor Wayne Euvrard clarified humorously at the Sept. 16 Town Board meeting. He caught himself when he reached the move’s discussion item on the meeting agenda.

“We’re not calling it the Amenia Elementary School anymore; it’s the ‘new Town Hall,’� he proclaimed with a laugh.

And technically it is, as the building is now officially town property, the quit claim deed having been filed with the county clerk. Having ownership of the building now gives the Town Board the authority to move forward in its efforts to relocate Town Hall to a permanent location.

The extension on Mechanic Street was given after a request to the fire company from Euvrard, who said that moving Town Hall into its new location was not feasible by Oct. 1, the date originally stipulated by the fire company on the lease termination notice.

The Town Board also adopted a resolution declaring the move an “emergency� for legal purposes, allowing the town to move forward on the most urgent parts of the move without being required to go through a potentially lengthy competitive bidding process.

The town also voted on Sept. 16 to hire the Somers, N.Y.-based company Alternative Designs as the project manager for the move, with a second resolution required once compensation is agreed upon. Councilwoman Darlene Riemer said that the company, led by Matt Deister, has been instrumental in helping the town develop a manageable scope of work as well as other preliminary steps toward moving. Riemer said the company has so far provided its services at no cost to the town.

That scope of work, which originally was nearly 20 items in length, has been trimmed down and separated into three phases. Only the first phase (projects like painting, cleaning, electrical work and plumbing) will be exempt from the competitive bidding process. Future phases, involving work on the auditorium and gymnasium, among others, will still go out to bid.

“Phase 1 is pretty much bare bones,� Councilwoman Victoria Perotti explained. “It’s what we have to do to get a CO [Certificate of Occupancy] and get moved in.�

The next step in the process,
Riemer said, would be for Alternative Designs to field more specific cost estimates for all Phase 1 work.

The next Town Board meeting is scheduled for Oct. 14 at 7 p.m.  It will be held for the second to last time at the firehouse location of 36B Mechanic St.

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