TURNER – Estimates for an addition to the Town Office range from $210,560 to $302,400, Town Manager Jim Catlin told officials this week.
The town has set aside $178,000; the Budget Committee has agreed to recommend raising any additional money needed at the April town meeting.
Catlin said estimates for the 2,240-square-foot addition range from $94 to $135 per square foot.
Catlin noted the estimates do not include renovations to the existing office, site work and some mechanical systems.
He said the Town Office Committee didn’t want to spend a lot of money getting drawings and estimates until questions are answered at town meeting.
Ralph Caldwell, the Leavitt Institute Committee chairman, has told selectmen he wants an article on the warrant asking voters to relocate the office.
There is space at the Leavitt Institute building, which was occupied by SAD 52 administrative offices.
The building is owned by the town but lies on school property.
A warrant article is being submitted by petition asking if voters want to move the office to the building, thereby “saving several hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
Moving the office, however, also would involve approval by the SAD 52 Board of Directors, which two weeks ago unanimously rejected the idea.
Other questions are: whether the town or school district holds governance over the building’s use, whether residents want the office relocated, what it would cost to renovate the building, and whether it would meet space needs.
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