Seymour Town Hall, in a photo from Facebook.
SEYMOUR — Last week the Board of Selectpersons unanimously approved spending $91,343 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds for purchases that will benefit the Citizens Engine Co., as well as the school board’s new central office location at Seymour High School.
The items will next head to the Seymour Board of Finance, which meets later this month, for a final approval.
The town received a total of $4.8 million in ARPA funds, according to First Selectwoman Annmarie Drugonis. The federal stimulus funds can be used, in part, for public and health safety purposes, as well as investments in water, sewer and broadband infrastructure. Drugonis said municipalities have until 2026 to allocate the ARPA funds.
The board approved the following purchases:
*$42,800 to replace the HV/AC system at Citizen’s Engine Co.
*$16,920 for concrete work for central office
*$26,623 for security cameras for central office
*$2,100 new exterior signage for central office
*$2,900 landscaping for central office exterior
Drugonis said the new HVAC system for the Citizen’s Engine building on DeForest Street was awarded to the lowest bidder, Sav-More, based in Southington. She said the current air conditioning system in the building died out over the summer. The new system will include a 5‑ton air handler, a 5‑ton cooling unit, a 7.5‑ton cooling unit and two, 4‑ton air handlers slated for installation on the second floor of the building, which includes the captain and chief’s offices, a rec room, a conference room and the offices of the company officers.
The concrete bid for the ongoing renovation of central office was awarded to the sole bidder, TSW Landscape & Design, based in Oxford. The company will install a new sidewalk, retaining wall and handicapped-accessible ramp at the double-door main entrance of central office, which is located in the rear of Seymour High School on Botsford Road.
The bid for security cameras for central office was awarded to Utility Communications, Inc., based in Hamden, which is the same company that handles the existing security equipment at Seymour High School.
New exterior signage, directing the public to central office, went to Flash Signs of Beacon Falls, and a $2,900 bid for landscaping outside the building, was awarded to Rooster’s, a landscaping and garden supply company based in town.
Selectman Fred Stanek, who chairs the town’s “Central Office Relocation Committee,” said renovations to a former unused, classroom wing at SHS for use as the new central office, is expected to open the second week of November.
The BOE’s current location at 98 Bank St. in the former 100-plus year old Center School building, isn’t accessible to people with disabilities, according to Stanek. Moving the central office to a new home has been discussed on and off for more than a decade.
The classroom wing in the north end at SHS, built in 1969, is underutilized, Stanek said, especially since the school’s population has declined from a high enrollment in the 1970s of about 1,250 students to 600 students today (in part due to neighboring Oxford now having its own high school).
The new central office will have a separate entrance in the rear of the school, and the public would not be allowed to enter the space through the school’s main entrance. There will also be parking designated specifically for central office staff and the public.
