Map courtesy of the Town of Richmond, Vt.
Voters in the small town of Richmond, Vt., will decide if the community can borrow up to $9.8 million to fund renovations on its century old Town Center.
The building is not in very good shape, Vermont Public Radio reported Feb. 26, as it lacks proper ventilation and has no indoor sprinkler system. Additionally, its windows are drafty, the rickety fire escape does not reach the third floor, and the basement tends to flood.
"We've had engineers and architects look at it and tell us the foundation, the roof and the walls are good, but just about everything else is not," said Jeff Forward, a Richmond Selectboard member and head of a committee tasked with developing a plan to renovate the Town Center and the nearby public library.
The Richmond Town Center is an anchor as it holds the community's only post office, an art space, a senior activity center, the police station, a local news channel, offices for a summer camp and food service program, all of the town's administrative offices and vital records, and serves as storage for the local historical society.
On March 5, Town Meeting Day across much of Vermont, voters in Richmond will be asked to authorize municipal officials to borrow up to $9.8 million to fund a large-scale renovation of the building.
The Town Center and Library Buildings Committee, which Forward chairs, has spent five years studying the building and noting all its flaws as well as working with an architectural firm, regulators, engineers and others to prepare a plan for the upgrades.
"The one thing that the committee does not know is whether the community is willing to invest this much in this building," Forward said in speaking with Vermont Public Radio. "We'll find that out."
Old Building Has Multitude of Ailments
On the second floor of the town office, Forward lifted a sign off the front door, revealing a smattering of soot from a nearby air vent.
Linda Parent, the town clerk, wipes it up once a week.
"We were getting this terrible smoke through the air vents," she explained. "We got some air filters and cleaned the air vent, which has helped some, but judging by the filters it's still coming out."
Parent added that the building presents multiple health and safety issues.
Still, there is a benefit to having such poorly insulated windows.
"Our only source of ventilation in this building is the leaky windows," Forward said.
The Town Center's windows are made of single-pane glass with plastic insulation, which Parent noted "doesn't really help."
The storm windows outside also are so heavy, Forward noted, that it is difficult to safely remove them. He does not even remember the last time many of them were cleaned.
But a renovated building would have double-pane windows, eliminating the need for storm windows, providing better insulation and making them easy to clean.
Down in the basement, Forward pointed to a line of plaster on the wall that marked where the water reached in last July's floods.
A corner of the building is located on a hundred-year floodplain, meaning a 1 percent chance exists for a flood to reach that point every year. Just since the beginning of 2023, he explained, the basement has flooded three times.
When water does reach the Richmond Town Center, it fills a hollow space beneath the post office that currently houses heating pipes. If voters approve the renovation money, though, the central heating system will be replaced with an electric heat pump, and the space will be filled in. All mechanical systems also would need to be moved out and pressure drains would need to be installed.
"If the ground becomes inundated with water it risks collapsing the foundation," Forward warned. "So, we have to put in a relief valve to allow water to come into the building if the floodwaters get too high."
Once the renovations are complete, only non-critical storage will be allowed in the basement.
He said that filling the crawl space and installing new wiring, a modern HVAC system, fire alarms and sprinklers all require tearing up walls, floors and ceilings in the building, making it more economical to do everything at the same time.
"It will be painful to go through the construction process, but it will be a one-shot deal," Forward told Vermont Public Radio.
Richmond Putting All Its Efforts Into This Plan
The $9.8 million budget is a ceiling, not a floor, he said. Any grants the town receives will lower the cost to taxpayers, but even with cost-saving measures like keeping the walls, roof, and foundation, it is still an expensive project.
Forward sees the long-overdue renovation as part of a legacy in Richmond of expensive projects that remain standing today, like the Old Round Church or the former Unitarian church that now serves as the town's public library.
The Richmond Town Center was originally a schoolhouse, built in 1907 and designed by famed early 20th-century Vermont architect Frank Austin. A year later, a massive fire destroyed the block, although the schoolhouse, made of brick, managed to survive. Just a few years later in 1914, the town expanded the building.
"And what that tells me is that there were people who lived in town at that time who felt that they had the time, the energy and the resources to invest in their community, for the long term, and we are still living with that legacy," Forward explained. "The plan we put together is a legacy project for future generations."
Asked what the committee plans to do if the measure fails, Forward let out a sigh before noting that construction costs will only continue to rise, and a piecemeal plan would result in a much longer period of disruption.
"We put all of our energy into this proposal because we felt it was the most cost-effective thing to do," he said. "If we weren't to do this, I really don't know. We don't have a Plan B."
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