Town Office Choice
Proving Difficult
By M. D. Drysdale

Friday and Monday saw another flurry of events aimed at deciding what to do next with regards to new town offices. Friday saw a walk-through of the DuBois & King building at 28 Main Street, and a Municipal Building Committee meeting, and on Monday another special selectboard meeting convened.

At the end of it all, town officials still seemed at a loss about how to decide.

The meeting confirmed a continuing split in the board, in which three members, including Chairman Stephen Webster, are inclined to expand the town offices where they, and two want to move to the former co-op space. A proposal to purchase the D&K building is still poorly understood.

Monday’s special selectboard meeting, the second in three weeks to discuss the municipal building, mostly featured various opinions. It did hear one piece of genuine news, which was that Jesse "Sam" Sammis would not agree to a 120-day extension of his offer of condominium space at the former co-op building on Pleasant Street.

However, recounted both Selectboard Chair Stephen Webster and Selectman Jim Hutchinson, Sammis did say that if he received another offer on the building, he would see if the town was interested in his original proposal.

The non-extension of the Sammis offer provided new urgency to decide quickly on the other two possibilities—expansion in the existing location, or purchase of the DuBois & King building on Main Street.

However, Monday’s meeting did not succeed in narrowing the options. In fact, discussion included not only the three main proposals but an earlier proposal for Summer Street by Black River Design and a floated idea to build a brand new building somewhere.

Proposal Criticized

Little new information about either the Sammis proposal or the DuBois & King proposal surfaced during the meeting, but sentiment among the 25 or so attendees was highly unfavorable toward the D&K purchase.

"This makes no sense to me," sputtered Carol Flint, chair of the Budget Committee. "We’re talking about buying a $3 million building and taking half of it off the tax rolls?" She also pointed to research by Building Committee member Michael Penrod that showed the D&K structure, though new and energy-efficient, currently costs about $104,000 annually for maintenance.

Randolph currently spends about $25,000 a year for maintenance at the town offices, although that is expected to rise if the building is expanded, Penrod told the meeting.

The D&K proposal is "really not an option," argued realtor Dennis Brown, a former selectboard chair. "It’ll take too long to study."

"We have a good proposal now," he said, referring to the former co-op space on Pleasant Street.

Building Committee member Chuck Webb predicted that trying to get the town to purchase the D&K building would create "a tremendous political problem" and doubted it could be done.

"It could be years before anything happens" to improve the town offices, he predicted.

Webb also pointed out that Randolph’s bond money may not be used to make lease payments, so if it wants to use the D&K building, it would have to buy it, not lease from the current owner.

Penrod, too, voiced concerns.

"What happens if D&K moves out?" he said. Then, the town would have a 22,000-square-foot building on its hands when it just needs 7000 feet.

"It’s a perception problem," Penrod said. "It just looks like it’s more than what Randolph needs."

Selectmen all said they thought the D&K idea was worth studying, but noted it will take time.

Financial Estimate

DuBois & King Chairman Bill Baumann has provided the selectboard with a financial summary entitled "Concepts for Discussion," though according to Webb the Building Committee has not seen it.

The summary estimates the space could be converted to town offices for $92,000. It also proposes that the town pay $33,000 more to D&K’s partners for designing the original plan on Summer Street. The summary indicates that after paying what’s left of Randolph’s bond issue money, and after selling the current municipal building, the town would still be left with a mortgage of $1.1 million or $1.3 million, depending on how much the municipal building sells for. A revenues stream of $114,000-$131,000 a year could be anticipated from leasing the upstairs to D&K, which would more than pay for the debt service, according to the estimate.

An independent financial summary is being drawn up by Randolph Area Community Development Corp., the actual owner of the building.

RACDC continues to study the proposal, and RACDC board president Marty Strange said Monday he couldn’t’ say even whether it would be legal for the town to buy the building.