The town hall on North Main Street in Homer. (Photo provided by Kevin L. Smith of The Cortland Voice).
A contract is being considered for renovations within the town hall on North Main Street in Homer, according to the town supervisor.
The concept for Homer Police Department has a door that connects to the town courtroom. The senior center will also be used as a voting location, and a meeting area for the village and town board when they anticipate a large crowd, noted town supervisor Fred Forbes in the past.
The contract is from Crawford & Stearns, a architectural firm based in Syracuse. Forbes told The Cortland Voice on Thursday that the contract is two parts: $51,000 to draw out project plans to go out to bid, and $26,000 for the firm to oversee the project.
Once the town officially receives the contract, Forbes said, the town board can vote and move forward with the project.
Forbes anticipates the total cost of the project is between $950,000 and $1,250,000 million.
According to Forbes, the town would use $320,000 of its American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds, $100,000 pledged by the village’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) funds and potentially $200,000 from a state sewer grant to cover some of the project’s cost. The rest of the costs would be covered by the town’s reserve funds, Forbes said.
“(The funds) make a huge difference in what we’re trying to do,” Forbes said.
Forbes doesn’t anticipate bids will be submitted from construction companies prior to September. The hope, he added, is to find a construction company who’d be willing to work during the winter season.
The project would be indoors in a controlled environment, and construction companies wouldn’t have to work in the cold, Forbes said.
The village police department used to call town hall its home up until the mid-1980s. The department moved to the former village recreation building on South Main Street and stayed there until the early 2000s, according to village police chief Bob Pitman in the past.
Since then, the department has been housed at a former train station on James Street in the village. Pitman, who’s been the village police chief since 2016, noted last year that the building where the department is currently located is leased out to a third-party company and not owned by the village.
As Forbes has mentioned in the past, the town hall is the largest municipal building in Cortland County without a police presence.
“I would really like to see them back here,” Forbes said.
