BRUNSWICK — Town officials believe they’re closer to a final design for a new Brunswick police station that will cost less than the target budget of $5.5 million.
In March, the town’s Police Station Building Subcommittee rejected design plans for a $7.2 million station at the corner of Pleasant and Stanwood streets. They asked the architect to return with a scaleddown, less expensive design.
That move delayed a public hearing originally scheduled for March 27 to discuss a bond ordinance, or loan, that the town would have to take out to pay for all or part of the construction project.
On Tuesday, cost continued to drive discussion of how to proceed with plans that have now shaved 6,000 square feet and nearly $2 million from the previous design.
After a report from architect Jeff Shaw of Donham and Sweeney, the firm in charge of designing the building, members of the Police Station Building Subcommittee indicated preferences on a number of design elements for the proposed building.
Discussion centered on whether to include an external sally port — where people arrested are first brought into the station — that would add an estimated $120,000 to the project.
Committee member Rita Worthing said that keeping the sally port as a single-story addition at the back of the building would help prevent long-term problems with corrosion that might emerge as a result of the regular cleaning with a hose.
After discussion, the group voted 9-0, with member Ben Tucker absent, to support the inclusion of the sally port in future designs.
Committee chairwoman Joanne King said that support of the external sally port does not bind the committee to the cost but just gives the designers something to work with going forward.
King said the committee still aims to hit the target budget of $5.5 million and would consider tradeoffs to make the external sally port happen if that becomes a challenge.
“But if this is a critical element, then we need to support it now,” King said before the vote.
According to the latest figures from Pete Pelletier of Ledgewood Construction, the project’s construction manager, planners still need to shave an additional $211,000 from the overall cost before adding that external sally port — to achieve a project budget of $5.5 million or less.
Committee members also expressed their preference for other design elements, including the type of roof.
By a 7-1 vote, with subcommittee members John Perreault and Ben Tucker absent, the group expressed its preference for a hipped roof over a gabled roof.
Committee member John Donovan voted against the hipped roof option, which slopes down toward each side of the building whereas the gabled roof would slope down only down the long sides of the building. The gabled option would mean taller brick walls on each short side of the building, Shaw said.
Shaw, who advised the committee throughout the discussion, said the hipped roof could help the building to fit better with the neighborhood and keep it from appearing dramatically taller than the neighboring buildings.
As a result, Shaw said, the hipped roof option could be moved closer to the corner of Pleasant and Stanwood streets, leaving more space on the interior of the lot for parking or other uses.
The committee also expressed a preference for a solid canopy over the door as opposed to a glass canopy.
As for cost, Pelletier said preliminary figures lining up with the committee’s target budget are still “far away from getting the final price.”
“There are months of design and development steps to make sure we’re still in line with that (target budget),” Pelletier said. “We need to make some tradeoffs from the last budget just to get to the $5.5 (million) and we’re already thinking about what to do without affecting the quality” of the building and features.
Shaw said he plans to return to the group with a final design on May 1. From there, he expects to refine that proposal during two other meetings before presenting a final cost estimate for the project by June 12.
dfishell@timesrecord.com
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