The Tisbury select board voted last week to approve up to $70,000 for an architecture firm to identify a site where town hall offices can be brought together under one roof.
Icon Architecture, the Boston firm that designed Oak Bluffs’ town hall renovations in 2020-2022, has a new Island contract in the works.
The Tisbury select board voted last week to approve up to $70,000 for Icon to identify a site where town hall offices can be brought together under one roof.
The town hall annex on High Point Lane.
The town hall annex on High Point Lane.
The money comes from funds that were previously approved by town meeting voters for the consolidated town hall search.
At a special town meeting last December, voters also approved $600,000 in design and architecture services for the new town hall, with the stipulation that none of it can be spent until the location is finalized.
Tisbury’s municipal offices have long been scattered through the town, with the finance and town clerk’s offices on the first floor of the Katharine Cornell Theatre on Spring street and the planning, building and health departments operating out of an aging pair of modular buildings on High Point Lane.
After mold rendered their Spring street offices unsafe two years ago, the town administrator and personnel departments moved in with the department of public works, also on High Point Lane.
Desperate for space, Tisbury officials considered leasing the former Educomp and telephone company building on State Road, but opted to continue the search for a suitable town-owned property.
Along with the Spring street building — a former church from the mid-1800s — and the High Point Lane property adjoining the Park and Ride and municipal transfer station, the town also owns a vacant building lot at 55 William street across from the Tisbury School, as well as the police department building downtown and the emergency services facility on Spring street, built in 2013.
Icon Architecture’s job will be to assess the town’s various landholdings for the most suitable site to develop as the future Tisbury town hall.
A five-member task force of Tisbury residents, headed by Rick Homans, selected the firm from five applicants for the contract, town administrator Joseph LaCivita said at a select board meeting July 3.
Mr. LaCivita told the board members he would bring the Icon Architecture contract back for their final approval and signatures on July 22.
Comments
The library has had exposed
Carlos Marks TisburyThe library has had exposed siding for over a month. Siding paper flapping in the breeze. The perimeter fence is leaning. The project looks poorly managed to say the least. And now the taxpayers are asked to fund another one?
Why we would go to find any
Yes but TisburyWhy we would go to find any new project before we know the numbers of the new regional school is beyond me. But yes, whoever is next in line and Tisbury seems to get a new building.
I remember when the library was supposed to be all donor funded. Then the town was snookered into approving $8 million for a total teardown basically.
This two will be another debacle!
The town has always been fractured. There is no need to be under one roof. Building department / permitting Officesneeds to be totally separate to allow for builders and trades people to come and go. Provide adequate parking. Townhall functions, payroll, Human Resources, Administration, finance, bill paying, etc. need to be in a centrally located area close to downtown and preferably in it’s current location.
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