By Rob Sample
After almost three months of weighty topics such as retail cannabis and protecting the ridgeline, the Monday, March 11 meeting of the Marlborough Town Board was free of controversy and public comment. This gave Town Supervisor Scott Corcoran an opportunity to showcase the almost-complete Town of Marlborough Community Center on Route 9W.
The building is also known as the TOMVAC building, as it was the historic site for the Town of Marlborough Volunteer Ambulance Corps (TOMVAC). “Everybody’s asking me about what TOMVAC looks like inside,” said Corcoran, launching a multi-photo PowerPoint presentation of the building’s progress. “The outside’s looking great; its pretty much done.
“Probably by the end of the month into the next month will be the last phase of what we have to complete” on the exterior, he continued. “We hope to have a grand open in early June if all goes well.” The remaining exterior work outside includes landscaping, a new flagpole, a rear ADA [Americans with Disabilities Act]-accessible ramp and stairs, then new blacktop.
Continuing with the presentation, Corcoran noted that the entry portico has a cathedral-style roof and an automatic door opener for accessibility. As of last week, the interior was approximately 95 percent complete. This included all flooring, suspended ceilings, tile work, electrical, HVAC, fire alarm system, and painting.
The building is divided into a community-center side and a recreation side, connected by a tiled hallway. The community room features a pass-through from the kitchen. “The kitchen is almost all done…this was when it was getting tiled,” said Corcoran, gesturing to the photos on screen showing the newly installed dishwasher, stove hood, freezer, and refrigerator.
All interior walls are painted a contemporary gray tone. While a water fountain and exit signs were already installed at the time of Corcoran’s presentation, crews were installing items such as hand dryers and “slop sinks” for the custodial area. There are security cameras throughout the building, and the conference room has a projection screen that lowers from the ceiling.
“The conference room is completed as well as the audiovisual system and security cameras,” Corcoran noted. “As you can see it’s a pretty big room: 35 feet wide by 65 long.” He estimated that the room could accommodate 200 people seated.
Corcoran said crews are currently “squaring off” a corner of the rear parking lot, to make for additional parking. The plans call for the parking area to encircle the building. A finishing touch will be a block wall that will act as both a planting bed and a barricade, to keep cars from crashing into the building.
Corcoran also showed some arial photos taken of the work done thus far at Young’s Field. Crews from the Highway Department have widened the drains at the park to solve recent flooding issues. Corcoran noted that Tilcon donated the rock used in both projects.
“So we’ve got a lot of stuff on our plate,” he said. “We’re also doing the whole Milton Landing over right now.” He said the work would force the Milton Train Station to be closed for events for about two months.
Conservation Action Committee Chair Mici Simonofsky asked about plantings at the Young’s little-league fields. “We discussed at the CAC opportunities to get different plantings through grants,” she said. “If that’s something that you want us to look at then the CAC could be helpful in applying for grants.”
Corcoran noted that Board Member David Zambito’s company had already developed a landscaping plan, and he and Member Sherida Sessa (who chairs the Recreation Committee) discussed having a fence installed by the t-ball fields, to prevent balls from going into the woods and a nearby brook. Simonofsky noted that plantings obtained through the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation could help stabilize brook erosion.
During the business portion of the meeting, the Board approved the following resolutions:
• A $69,185.13 bid from Callanan Industries for paving at the Marlborough Community Center. The work includes striping.
• Resolutions calling for advertising for highway items, including washed stone and material hauling, and for fuels.
• Resolutions to make budget amendments, to reconcile the 2023 budget, and to transfer $64,701 from the park-reserves fund to the general fund, for Highway Department work at the Town Park in 2023.
• A resolution to amend the useful life schedule of snowplows, spreader/sanders, mowers, and trailers, from 15 years to 10 years.