East Windsor needs $20,000 to finish police station work
By:Jennifer Misthal, Journal Inquirer
06/20/2006
EAST WINDSOR - A lack of $19,604 is all that is preventing the town from completing a few odds and ends left over from the Police Department's $400,000 renovation project.
The project ran out of money a month ago, leaving unfinished items on the "punch list" - including a $1,200 hot-water heater for the men's locker room and re-keying the building for $1,500 - compiled by the Building Department.
The 14-item list will be presented to the Board of Finance for approval at its June 21 meeting.
This request for extra money will not require approval from a town meeting, Selectman Kenneth Crouch explained recently, because it is under $20,000.
The Building Department was responsible for purchasing a new boiler at Broad Brook Elementary School, which came in $14,000 under budget, Crouch said. The Building Department is hopeful that the town's finance officials will reallocate those funds, which will cover the bulk of expenses.
Crouch, who also serves as the chairman of the Building Department, submitted the list to the Board of Selectmen at its June 6 meeting. The board, in turn, unanimously forwarded the request to the Board of Finance.
The town purchased a new communications system and had no place to put it, Crouch said, prompting these renovations, which were started last June.
"Whenever we had a catastrophe, the Police Department couldn't talk to the Fire Department. We didn't have a good communications network," Crouch said, adding that now emergency personnel can communicate with each other "without stepping on each other."
To make room for the new communications equipment, the department's dispatchers were moved to new space.
The renovations also will ensure that the department, housed in a converted school building, meets state requirements, Crouch added, pointing to the evidence room that now complies now with state regulations.
With the project 85 percent complete, Crouch said, it will take only a month to wrap up the renovations once the money is allocated.
Since exhausting its appropriations, the Building Department has proved resourceful in its efforts to complete the renovations. In fact, some tasks were performed free of charge, Crouch said.
Cliff Nelson, a member of the Building Department, had a friend who pitched in $600 worth of tile for the main hall, Crouch said. The town crew - already working for the town - put a up a ceiling, and Peter Sanders, a member of the Building Department, worked on the lighting in the women's locker room.
With vendors and construction crews working around the police, Crouch said, it is not surprising the project is over budget.
"You can't take over the police station," he said, explaining that projects were done in pieces. "It's like playing shuffleboard in order to accommodate everyone."
This request to complete the Police Department renovations comes after voters narrowly defeated a motion to add about $109,272 to the police budget for overtime, gas, and vehicle maintenance.
©Journal Inquirer 2006
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