Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutProposed Space Project April 14, 2006.PDFTo: Frorn: Re: Date: Mayor Lynn and the Board of Trustees The Space Comrnittee Proposed Space Project AptJ,1,4,2006 In 7969, after much discussion between the residents of the Village of Cay,aga Heights and the Board of Trustees, the "Stofle House" which now houses the Cledr's offices, the Court, and the Police Depaltrnent, was putchased. The following is an excerpt of a letter by Mayot Marcham sent to the residents of the Village onJznuary L6,1,969 explaining the reasons behind the purchase of the currerit \/illo-o Lroll The problem j-s the Villagets need for more space in which to house its services:the solu.tjon is purchase of tire stone ilouse at the village Green. As you know, a single build.d-ng, now about 12 years old., presently houses the FireStation, the office of the CLerk, and the court of the Vill-age Justice; it also provides filing space for the Treasurer, the Engineer, the Ntrayor, and. otherofficials. The Police Department uses two upstairs rented rooms in a Community Corners build.ing. This spaee, part our own and. part rented, is no J-onger enough, The VolunteerFire Company has no meeting plaee, tlre Village Justice holds court in a few 6qua"e feet, among files and. ad.d.i4g machines and secretariesr desks, The spacefor Village record.s j-s overtaxed, and. the pollce have other d.iffi.culties. They pass through a nalrow ha1l and. climb steep stairs to get to tireir upstairsquarters, Once there, the smal-Iness of the quarters works against satisfactory performance of their duties. Last weekend. for example, thciy were faced withinterrogating two suspects. There was no room to question then separately, andthe officials involved. in the investigation - the members of the Village Police Force, the District Attorney, the Sheriff, the State Police - tr{€r'e crowded. together, shoulder to should_er. The three ViIIage services I have mentioned., fire protection, justice court, and po3-ice d.epartment, are of the highest quality; they are the envy of neighboring communities, To brlng them to this l-evel of performance, and. to keep them there, has been a continuing concern of the Trustees, They have built a program onexcellent personnel, good. equipment, and. frequent opportunity for specialized.training. In rloing this they have recognized. a d.ouble responsibility to you;to keep costs as low as possible and" to assure a safe, secure, ord"erly Village, As you carr see, the problems that were prevalent 37 yearc ago have come to the forefront zgatn today. Sx years ago the Village spent $2.5 million building a new, state of the att fte station, housrng space for 16 bunkets, offices not only for the Fire Chief and his assistants, but also for officers of the Fre Company, a rcady room, meeting room, and workout room, . ,all handrcap accessible. This has enabled our fite department to excel in response time as well as continuous training of its volunteers. Now, the police depattment and admtnisftative offices need to be addtessed. The space that houses both these departments no lo:nget fills the needs that it was designed to fill 37 yeat;s ago. The Village Hall has to deal with the increased responsibrhty of its staff wh'rch involves needed modrfications to accommodate the technological changes with whlch the Village is requted to operate. The Village Hall also needs improved access to employees and the public, as it is not handtcap accessible. The Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities. A drsabled person (n a wheelchat) is not able to enter this buildrng unassisted to conduct Village business. ril/e must remember that our butlding is used as a Coutt, as well as fot village elections. Thrs is one problem that needs to be addressed before a situation presents itself that will force us to address it. It is now time to bring our Village Hall depattments to the leve1 of performance that is required, and to keep them there. In the 1968 words of Mayor Matcham, ...."They have built a program on excellent personnel, good equipment, and fiequent opportunity for specialized training. In dorng this, they have rccognned a double responsibilrty to the tesidents and the Boatd; to keep costs as low as possible and to assure a safe, secure, ordedy Village." The Space Committee has worked diligently for the past2 years to come up with viable plans that address both the handicap accessibility problem and the space needs in the Village Hall. The presentations done by Schickel Architects last May, along with the presentations being done at Monday's Board meeting by QPK Designs, are designed to give the Board choices on how to proceed, while keeping costs as low as possible. The Space Committee has been committed to finding a set of plans that wili achieve the results each department is looking for now and rn the future. The Committee invites all the Tnrstees to meet with the department heads before the meeting on Monday night to discuss each department's needs. Each depattment head will be avaiable from 6:30 - 7:00. * x {< * *++ + ++**x* *** ** *** ** * ** >F+* +*>F * ** ** ** >k * x** ** *** ** ** Following is a list by department of needs to bnng the depatments to the level of perfotmance and keep them there. This is not a complete list, just some key points that will be further addtessed in the proposed plans. The Police Depattment - Not opetating at maximum efficiency. 1.. Intewiew room - functions other than taoed interv'rew room - break rooln - meeting room - 2'd juvenile interuiew room - uhl the safe is stored in this room. 2. -1. Locker room - 10lockers are not enough, 1.4 x.e needed. Two people changing at one time becomes difficult at times. Lockers need to be bigget to hold mote for the full trme officers, patt time officers have to shate lockers. Open room in the back serves as run-off from locker room - office supply storage cabinet is in this room along with btezthalyzer set-up, fingerprint ^rea, ammo stotage, office card :frle cabinet stotage, evidence lockets, and office shtedder (oud when in use). Old Sargeant Office - now serves as offi.ce for zll, officets to use for report writing - use as interwiew room is difficult to secure for privacy. . .there shoud be space for ztleast2 sepatate "cubicle" offices. I{rtchen also is used as mail center fot all. officers, as well as decontamrnation room, Main office has two desks with computers - sometimes difficult for part-time cletk 4. 5. 6. to work while others are coming in the office to addtess other issues with full time cletk or officers. 7. The Chiefs Office also houses the micro fllm reader which should be accessible to all Village departments. 8. PdmaryJuvenile Interwiew Room is now the Mayor's office. The Treasurer's Office/I.T. Depattment The Treasurer's office is small, and cramped with no storage room for frequently used materials. The I.T. Department is pretty scattered all over the Village Hall. Of most concern is the roorr housing the network equipment. This equipment is housed rn the basement in a room known as the Vault. This room is not at conditioned and needs to have cooLng capabdities. It is also very dusty because of the nature of the room. At tlrrs time, the records storage atea,which is also housed in the Vault, needs temperature/humidrty monitonng capabiJities. This area also houses a sewage pipe which could present a big problem to oul records if it were to leak. An option being considered is to house all permanent records at the Town of Ithaca Records site, leaving only frequendy used records (at least 5 years) at the Village Hall. However, those records need propet stofage. The Cietk's Office Origrna\ the Clerk and Deputy Clerk sat together in the office upstairs whete the Deputy Clerk currently is. The Clerk found it necessary to be able to conduct business privately away ftom the pubJic, therefore, the Treasuter's office became smallet and now is shated with the Clerk. The Treasurer and the Clerk presendy shate a 130 sf office. The Cletk needs room for file storage in het office, along with normal office furruture. The office whete the Deputy Clerk sits needs a lower ttansaction counter (for handicapped individuals). Also, the Deputy Clerk's space should be somehow separated ftom the public so as to allow her quret space to perform the many accounting functions that are part of her job descnption, but at the same time be able to see when someone is at the counter. There also needs room fot the normal office furniture (desks, chairs), along with at least two frling cabinets (preferably three). The .Mayor's office currently at 1,20 sf is acceptable. Engineet's Offlce Requirements Srnce the Village Engineer acts as the Superintendent of Public \)7orks, Village Engineer, Burlding Commissioner (ncluding building and ftte rnspector) andZontng Officer, then the Engineer's Ofiice is the host to all of these functions. In othet municipalities, thete ate separate offices for these functions. Therefote, there are numerous issues that ate not adequately addressed by the current "miniature" office. 1. Thete is not enough room to have the necessalT futnitute to layout latge documents (such as construction drawings). This is a problem when I have to review such documents fot village projects like !7S7TP, highway, water/sewer mains. There ate als,o large documents that are brought in fot building permits. Many times, I have to Iay them out over top of my regular desk and trT to discuss them with the public, who is looking at them upside down from actoss the desk. 2. Although the third floot records stotage has been a big relief to having file cabinets and othet storage wrthin the "miniatute" office, there is still a need tohave a reasonable amount of space within the office fot stotage of "^cive" files and drawings. Currently, many of these kinds of fi.les are kept on the window sill next to my desk. 3. To fulfill the duties of the rnany titles that I have, there is a farAy extensive set of tefetence materials needed to support the various technical functions. It is common for such offices to have adequate book shelf space for hbnry of books including code manuals, engineering technical references, and product data. 4. Since there is no teceptiort are for the general public, visitors must come to my office doot unannounced. Often times, when I am on the telephone, they hover around outside of the door while unavoidably listening to my convetsations. Sometimes, during lengthy conversation, I forget that the visitor is still waiting outside my doot. Many times, when I have a visitor io -y office, othet visitors will interupt our conversation to get my attention. Other times, there are several diffetent visitors all waiting to see me and they either have to stand in line at the top of the stairs, or risk loosrng the position by waiting down stairs ot outside. There have actually been disputes between visitors about who is next tn line. 5. Each surnmer, we hire an assistant to help with general/vatious tasks of the Engineer's Office. Although the "stotage" ioom on the third floor has adequate space for a desk, it is not technically alegalTy occupiable offi.ce since it is on the third floor with only one means of egress. The existmg set of stairs ate not compliant will rise/run by the building code. In addition, the space is not adequately vented or a:tt- conditioned and tends to become intolerably hot in the summet time. These issues will become more significant if a full time wotket is added to the engrneering staff. 836 Hanshaw Road Attached is a report by Brent Cross on the state of the Village Hall building. DATE: TO: FROM: RE: REPORT: ENGINEER'S REPORT April 13,2006 SPACE COMMITTEE : Brent Cross, PE Elxisting Building, 836 Hanshaw Road As requested, I am providing the following information as a supplement to the Committee's report on space need to the Village Board of Trustees. This information is based on my observations and involvement with the ongoing maintenance of this building over the last 13 years. The building was constructed in 1926 (according to the fireplace cornerstone) as a single family residence. Over the years, it has been modified to serve as the offices for the Village government. The following are some comments about various parts of the building: 1. The overall structure is in generally good condition. The foundation shows no signs of failures, the exterior stonewalls have resisted the weather quite well, and the interior floors and partitions are holding up well. The slate roof has been a source of continuous maintenance due to an annual loss of about a'dozen individual slate tiles each year. The most significant issue with the roof is the poor design of the valleys and crickets that separate the meeting room from the main building. There have been repeated attempts to repair the flashings at the building interface, but the leaks keep coming back. The result can be observed by the bubbling/flaking offfor the plaster wall finish in the meeting room that often returns shortly after attempts to patch the finish. 2. The electrical and mechanical systems in the building are not in very good condition. As far as the heating system goes, the design of the system is an older style single-loop hot water radiator type, which is not a very effective in the modern offrce environment. The boiler itself is very old and will only be able to continue on a year by year basis, The electrical system is a mess. The original house wiring has been updated on several occasions with breaker subpanels in several different locations. There is a history of circuit failures as a result of the old wiring not being ahle to handle the loads of modern offlrce equipment. 3. Since the building was original constructed as a single family residence, there was no intention filr the building to meet modern day accessibility. This issue is not simply whether or not is meets the strict provisions of the ADA requirements, but the fact that the stairs to the Clerk's offtce are unreasonable to ask the general public to traverse on a daily basis. The obvious non- c,ompliance is the lack of vertical accessibility to the second floor, but in-fact the entry area does not provide accessibility to the Police Dept. or the Meeting Hall. Also, the effort to open the fi'ont door exceeds the ADA requirement. 4.Eachof the government departments in the building have reported inadequacy in usable space ftrr the function of the ofiices. Based on the above comments, I believe that there will be a certain amount of investment into this building to continue to use it as it is currently being utilized.