Earlier Building Plan
Is Taken Off the Shelf
By Chelsea Rose Sargent

Discussions at the June 17 meeting of the Randolph selectboard focused on plans for expanding the town’s municipal building on the current site, but scaled down from the last proposal.

Stephen Pitkin, an engineer and estimator from Orleans County was hired to make new estimates on the plans submitted several years ago by Black River Design for expanding the municipal building on the current Summer Street site. Pitkin was recommended by Michael Penrod, a member of the building committee, who did a great deal of the initial legwork on that project.

The Black River plans are being reconsidered after an earlier contract with three firms spearheaded by Dubois & King was ruled invalid by Vermont Superior Court.

Stephen Webster, chair of the selectboard, reported that the new estimates by Pitkin came out to $1.269 million. He emphasized, however, that the variance on the estimates was 37.5%, meaning that this project could be a great deal cheaper than reported.

At this point only $1,129,000 is left of the $1.2 million bond issued at the end of 2004 for the purposes of reconstructing the municipal building so that it would be more spacious and accessible to the handicapped.

Because the remaining $1,129,000 is not enough to cover the estimates as they stand, the selectboard asked the building committee to look into ways of scaling back these plans to be reported at the next meeting.

No mention was made during the meeting of the possibility of moving to the Co-op on Pleasant Street as was favored by citizens in a March 4 Town Meeting vote. Recently Jesse Sammis, owner of the Co-op building, has begun advertising it for sale in The Herald.