To give residents an advanced look at the plans to renovate the Wilton Town Hall, the town is holding an open house on Wednesday night.
The town will be asking for $300,000 during Town Meeting for renovations to the north end of the Town Hall, which includes storage space behind the town’s court room and the adjoining hallway and stairs leading to the Wilton Town Hall Theatre and the offices there. The majority of the funds – $280,000 will come from taxation, and the remaining $20,000 will come from the Town Hall Repair Project capital reserve fund.
There is a current storage room located behind the court room that will be turned into a conference room, said Town Administrator Scott Butcher in an interview Monday. The staff kitchen area will remain, but will be upgraded, as will the hallway and stairwell to the theater.
The men’s restroom located next to the stairway will be gutted and made compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
In the area that once held the police station, there are several offices that house the building inspector, assessor, planning clerk and welfare director.
That area will be gutted and made into an open concept office area that will house the town employees that currently have their desks in the Selectman’s office. The whole area will also be brought up to code in terms of its wiring, and the heating system for that part of the Town Hall, which is currently part of the old steam boiler system, will be put onto a more modern heat pump system.
The renovations will also hopefully ease the town’s current record storage troubles, said Butcher.
“Pretty much every department is having trouble finding space for their documentation storage,” said Butcher. “One of the things we’re looking to do is create a more efficient storage system.”
There’s no fire alarm currently installed in the building, and installing one will be part of the renovations.
“With the movie theatre upstairs, with sometimes more than 100 people in attendance, it’s time we had a fire alarm system,” said Butcher.
The lighting will also be upgraded to be more energy efficient.
The open house will be held on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Town Hall. Attendees will be given an overview of the project, a tour of the affected area of the building, and be able to ask questions of town officials and representatives from Scully Architects and Ingram Construction. If there is enough demand, a second open house will be held at the Town Hall at 10 a.m. on Saturday, March 11.
Check the town website for confirmation.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.