Project Manager Chosen for Town Hall Renovation

Barring any setbacks, the Tewksbury renovation has taken another step toward beginning construction.

According to Steven Sadwick, Tewksbury’s director of Community Planning, the selection committee has chosen CBI Consulting Co. as the Owner Project Manager for the Tewksbury Town Hall renovation. CBI is a Boston-based architectural and structural engineering firm with 24 years “at the forefront of architectural design with...historical restoration experience,” according to the company’s website.

“This selection was out of six firms that responded to the Request for Qualifications,” said Sadwick.

Sadwick said that CBI Consulting will first review the plans of architect Jeffrey Cook and will then be able to establish a time-line for the renovation construction.

“Once they review the plans and report back to the town, we will have a better idea of the timetable,” he said.

Presently, the town is concerned with the transfer and storage of sensitive town records that must be relocated from Town Hall due to the future construction. Denise Graffeo, Tewksbury’s Town Clerk, is making sure the move goes as smoothly as possible, she said.

Graffeo said she is working in concert with the Town Manager to develop a long-range plan for the town records. Graffeo said she has “inventoried and prioritized” records kept in the clerk’s office. The records stored in the basement of the Town Hall are another matter entirely. These records have succumbed to mold and mildew due to dampness and water leaks—issues the renovation will address, she said.

Graffeo said that records with mold damage must be cleaned before they are transferred to another storage area.

“Once they are cleaned, we must secure proper climate-controlled storage in order to prevent any re-growth from occurring and prevent the possibility of transferring mold onto clean documents,” she said.

As part of the records-transferal process, Graffeo and Town Manager Richard Montuori met with Sudbury Town Clerk Rosemary Harvell, to discuss a similar records-preservation project that had taken place in Sudbury, according to Graffeo.

“Rosemary Harvell...was kind enough to take a look at the digitization of the records and share her expertise with us,” she said.

As soon as research into the document cleaning is complete, Graffeo said she hopes to put the project out for bid.

Because the document removal, cleaning, and storage is part of the implementation plan of the Town Hall renovation, it must be completed before major work on the building can start. Sadwick also said that the town is preparing in other ways for the construction.

“The pre-construction coordination will include addressing the move from Town Hall of all offices and storage of records and documents as well as phone lines and network accessibility to the temporary location,” he said.

Accounting for all of these variables is no easy process.

“The Records project is proving to be complex, due to widespread mold and mildew issues which have developed over recent decades,” said Nancy Reed, Chair of the Tewksbury Planning Board. “Coordinating the two projects is a challenge and (has) to be done correctly, so that in the end both projects will be successful.”