Evaluate Alternatives to Renovating Town Hall - YES

Our Town Hall is at the end of its useful service life, plagued with issues from leaky roofs to sewage overflows to asbestos and mold. It's a 90-year old building that, frankly, was simply not built to last this long.

We know we need to take urgent action to give staff and the public a safe place to work and meet, but the question is what that action should look like. While we had been discussing a renovation project, in the interest of exhausting all options and using due diligence before expending taxpayer money, I voted yes to initiating a comprehensive study of our alternatives that would compare the costs and benefits of the proposed renovation with other alternatives like renting office space or purchasing a new building to use as our Town Hall elsewhere in town. Through this study, I expect we will gain a solid informational base on which to make a final decision about how best to proceed.