The last town council meeting featured a presentation on the administration’s efforts to consolidate town buildings and preview the efficiencies, utility savings, and tax gains that will come along with these changes. It’s a plan several years in the making, and it’s almost time to declare victory.

A recent tour of the Guiteras building showed many of those plans being put into practice.

“There's a value in having everyone in one building,” said Town Administrator Steven Contente. “Collectively the office works better." The Community Development, Planning, Zoning, and Buildings departments have long been under a separate roof from the rest of Town Hall, across Court Street before moving up to the Reynolds building a couple of years ago. Not only will staff work more efficiently under one roof, there’s no denying that maintaining one town hall will save the town in utility and other expenses.

Now that those departments have moved to Guiteras, Reynolds can be placed on the market for sale. Located off the Common, with no deed restrictions, its potential uses are many. According to Contente, buyers have already expressed interest.

“This will free up the funds to move the rest of the employees, the clerk's office, the administrator's office, finance, and tax collection to Guiteras,” he said.

“Once the school department moved out of Reynolds, we said, ‘let's fast track this because we're running two buildings now.’ This was vacant. So, on the 19th, I'm going to have a recommendation to the council to go forward and sell Reynolds.”

The plan is to send the renovation project out to bid in the fall, do the work over the winter, and get everyone moved into Guiteras by June 30, 2027.

At that point the current Town Hall will be sold, after the connector leading into the Burnside building is removed. The historic Burnside Building, our original Town Hall, will remain and continue to serve as a meeting space as well as home to the Veterans Council. “As you know, Burnside is one of our oldest buildings,” said Contente.

Guiteras, ready for her close-up

“It was upgraded a few years ago, so it's in very good shape,” said Contente. “This was just a building we couldn't pass up. Had we known that this was going to be decommissioned by the school department we would have looked at this a few years ago. But we had no idea.”

When they were looking to Reynolds as the new town hall, about $1.1 million was sunk into that structure, much of which was American Rescue Plan funds. Contente is confident that those costs will be recouped at the point of sale.

It’s estimated that upgrades to Guiteras will run about $3 million, funded from both the sale of Reynolds and leasing of Byfield, as well as the approximate $1.7 million endownment left by Ramon Guiteras for the upkeep of the building.

Plans include expanding the main foyer and bringing back the original walls of the building. A reception area and a public display area will greet you at the door. The first floor will house the more public-facing departments, including the Town Clerk, tax collection, and Administratior.

The second floor will house the Planning, Zoning, Community Development, and Buildings departments, as well as a council chambers that will be created by removing a wall between two large classrooms at the front of the building, overlooking Silver Creek and Bristol Harbor.
The auditorium could be used for referendums or large meetings. For the first time in memory, multiple boards and commissions could meet simultaneously.

Ultimately the back door will likely become the main entrance for accessibility, as the elevator is adjacent to that door.

The heating system is brand new; ductwork for fresh air will be retrofitted to allow air conditioning.

“We can keep it as simple as possible rather than them fighting with each other,” said Contente of the HVAC system. “We’ll have two independent systems and whenever, October 15th or April 15th we switch everything back between heating and cooling.”
Plenty will remain the same; reminders of Guiteras’ past life as a school will be evident.

“Right now we’re not doing anything with the woodwork,” said Contente. “We're not going to paint it because we don't really want to get in over our heads. We're trying to keep to that $3 million.
“The roof is new. The heating system is new. The windows are relatively new.

“The bones of the building are very good.”