Moving the Alna town office into the fire station is probably the best option for change, a hired team tells selectmen in an email and draft report the board got Feb. 1. Early projections put the cost between $427,500 and $604,5oo, compared to $579,957 to $665,971 to fix up and expand the town office in its cape on Route 218. The email states those numbers are adjustable, but that, with the information the team was working with, the probable costs are within 20 percent of being accurate.

First Selectman David Abbott said in a phone interview Feb. 2, he wouldn’t want to take prices that high to town meeting voters in March; and as a selectman and taxpayer, he wouldn’t support it. He recalled when a town clerk ran the office at home. Alna’s population was about the same then and the home set-up worked fine, he said.

Selectmen have said no change may come to the town office. Their interest in looking at its future stems in part from the cape’s small meeting room. When they expect a crowd, they meet across the road at the station.

The draft report from Lincoln/Haney Engineering Associates and Lewis and Malm Architecture describes the cost breakdown as a framework for dialog, and states it can be refined.

Lewis and Malm Architecture President Charles Earley adds in the email to selectmen: “As easy as it is to get stuck on numbers, the goal should be ... to determine which planning direction is the most suitable ...” If the team gets to keep working with the town, the plan’s scope, schedule and budget can be tailored to everyone’s satisfaction, Earley writes.

Selectmen tapped a $2,000 grant from the Lincoln County Regional Planning Commission last year for the consulting work.

The 1794 cape that has housed the office for the past decade is in “reasonably good condition,” the draft report states. But work should be considered in several areas, it adds. Those include the outside ramp and second-floor restroom that do not meet Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards, rotting clapboard siding, first-floor framing that needs reinforcement, and the meeting room that “can hardly handle” 10 people, the document states.

The draft report cites ways a renovation and addition to the station might improve the building’s function for the fire department, such as moving the chief’s office nearer where the volunteer firefighters work.

It notes the station is about half a century old with an addition less than a decade old and is a commercial-style building; so, from a real estate viewpoint, a project at the station appears to make more sense than one at the cape, the report continues. The consultants’ email requests the town officials’ take on the draft report before the team issues its final one. 

Reached Tuesday, Fire Chief Mike Trask called the draft report a good start overall; there’s room for improvement to it, he added.

Abbott said selectmen on Feb. 1 briefly noted they had received the draft report; it had just arrived by email and members had not had a chance to review it. They will discuss it at the board’s next meeting, at 6 p.m. Feb. 15 at the town office, Abbott said.