Pittsfield Gets Ready for Bond Vote
On Town Hall Renovation Project
By Martha Slater

Voters in the town of Pittsfield will soon have their say on a proposed project to renovate their town hall.

On March 13, the Pittsfield Selectboard approved a resolution to request a bond vote not to exceed $850,000 for the project. The board will hold a final pre-vote informational meeting Tuesday, April 10 and there will be an Australian ballot vote Wednesday, April 11 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the town hall. Absentee ballots will be available to those unable to attend.

The Pittsfield school house was renovated and turned into the Roger Clark Memorial Library and the town clerk and treasurer’s office in the early 1970s. For over 30 years, the building has served in that capacity, but ongoing problems have necessitated the need to make changes, town officials believe.

The federal Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), which went into effect in 1990, dictates that public buildings be handicapped accessible.

"Pittsfield is well past the deadline for making the town hall building accessible to everyone," said town clerk Patty Haskins.

In addition, the town office vault is a repository for all of the town's permanent records. These include all land records, vital records, school records, grand lists and town records dating back to when Pittsfield was chartered in 1781.

Haskins notes that the volume of records has outgrown the size of the vault, so a larger vault space is needed. The walls on the lower level have been plagued with an ongoing problem with water infiltration, making it a less than ideal environment in which to store permanent records.

"Since, Pittsfield is lucky enough to have such a full collection of its original records, the town is responsible for continuing to look after these records in a reasonable manner," Haskins said.

The Town Office Building Committee, which put many hours of hard work into creating a plan to renovate that structure and alleviate the ongoing problems, presented that plan at a public meeting in November. Using the input from that meeting, the committee explored additional options and discussed the results at a second meeting held in early February. 

Committee chair Henry Hotchkiss has gotten help with grant writing from the Two Rivers Ottauquechee Regional Planning Commission. TRORC Executive Director Peter Gregory will attend the committee’s next meeting to provide input.

Hotchkiss told The Herald that the present committee is an outgrowth of the accessibility committee formed a number of years ago by the selectboard. He has served on the committee for the past five years. The other committee members are Herb Bicek, Peter Borden, Paul Gutierrez, Doug Johnstone, Dick Stevens, and Patty Haskins.

"We spent a year just reviewing the building and the requirements that had to be satisfied, and determined that there were many things that needed to be done," Hotchkiss explained.

The new proposal moves the town office from its present home in the basement to the main floor of the building, and allows for a small one-story addition to the back of the building. The addition would hold the new vault, the main entrance for handicapped accessibility and also the handicapped accessible rest rooms.

The library would be moved to the basement, which would have work done on it to solve the water problems and make it safe for books. Plans also call for creating a meeting space on the second floor.

Hotchkiss noted that for the past three years, the town has voted at Town Meeting to put $20,000 aside so there is in excess of $60,000 put aside in the fund for renovations. There is also some money from a fundraising committee, which has had a fundraiser each year at the annual bazaar on the green and at the town’s Fourth of July celebrations.

"When we apply for historic preservation grants, that’s the kind of broad community support that they’re looking for," Hotchkiss said.

If the bond vote is passed, architect Mark McManus of Middletown Springs will then draw up the project plans to be out to bid.  

"We’ll see what bids come in and proceed with construction depending upon how that works out," Hotchkiss said. He told The Herald that he’s hopeful about passage of the upcoming bond vote, adding that, if all went well, the exterior work could begin next fall and be competed by next year at this time.

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