By Carol Britton Meyer

The current Hull Town Hall relocation project includes space that has been set aside for a possible new senior center, although nothing has been finalized. Projected occupancy is early 2027.

From the $3.2 million – including a contingency – appropriated for the overall project, $1.5 million remains to pay the construction costs associated with town hall moving to the former Memorial Middle School, according to Owner’s Project Manager Brian LaRoche of project management firm PCA360 in an update to the select board Wednesday night. Cost estimates are expected in about three weeks, followed by construction drawings and bid estimates.

Click here for the full presentation from Wednesday’s select board meeting

“The building is obviously a [former] school, and we want to make it look municipal,” he said, noting that “the preliminary numbers are likely to change once we get the estimates back.”

Other costs relate to administration, architecture and engineering, and boiler work at the current town hall because the Hull Police Department will remain in the lower portion of the building for the time being, among others.

The plan includes numerous meeting rooms of different sizes scattered around the building, a much larger select board room, a town manager’s suite near the front entrance, a landscaped handicapped-accessible ramp, and the potential senior center.

“We’re talking about a senior center that’s a possibility,” Chair Irwin Nesoff said. “No decisions or plans have been made.”

‘Ample space in building for additional services’

Town Manager Jennifer Constable said that following the needs assessment, “we found there is ample space in the building for additional municipal services,” noting that “we have arranged space to complement a senior center if it moves there.”

The relocation team “is not trying to just lay out the departments by room, but to make sure we’re right-sizing each of them,” LaRoche said.
There are a number of potential air conditioning options and a possible grant available and a potential $200,000 grant that would pay for the ramp. There is very limited air conditioning in the building now.

There’s also consideration of including a pre-fabricated records vault because the normal type would cost roughly between $350,000 to $400,000 – a large percentage of the $1.5 million construction budget.

The process so far has included a needs assessment involving conversations with town hall department staff and the hiring of an architect, Jeremy Tobin, from bh+a, who explained the proposed floor plan – including department layouts – and storage/flex space that will eventually be used for other purposes once the town’s files are digitized.

“The former storage spaces would become expansion spaces, designed for the town’s future 50-year growth,” LaRoche said.

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