Kevin LaChapelle: Tilton will consider plans for 21st century police station

To The Daily Sun,

Greetings fellow Tilton residents and taxpayers. Your Police Building Study Committee (PBSC) had an action-packed year as we continued our work on a new police facility. As you all know, 2018 revealed a huge win for us. The Roman Catholic Bishop of Manchester agreed to sell land on Sanborn Road to our community for a great price and in July the purchase was finalized. The Board of Selectmen then directed the PBSC to continue moving forward and identified a scope of work to include:

— Collaborating with the selectmen, town staff and the architect to develop a timeline and tasks,

— Working with the architect to fully develop the building design beyond the conceptual schematics,

— Creating shovel ready construction documents that will allow the town to secure bid estimates in time for the 2020 Town Meeting.

Our committee took this charge very seriously and moved forward with extreme dedication. In consultation with the selectmen, the PBSC selected a construction manager in order to obtain a complete bid estimate for our project. After a thorough selection process, Milestone Construction of Concord was chosen as our construction manager (CM). The construction manager process provided more accurate, transparent pricing and bid documents to our community. Through five months of laborious design, development and pricing, our committee was able to present solid budget numbers to the selectmen in preparation for the warrant article. The selectmen voted to accept our final design and budget numbers on December 9, 2019. This year’s warrant article to authorize the financing of $4,716,518 is the final cost that will allow us bring two decades of committee work to the finish line.

This collaborative work built on all the committee work done in past years and we were grateful for the solid foundation on which to build. Committee members always had an eye towards transparency, fiscal responsibility and integrity. The final result is a building that meets the community’s needs now and into the future; it is also a facility that provides a safe environment for our employees. We are proud of our work and extremely grateful for the continued support from our community. Most of all, we are honored to be your committee that looks forward to bringing this project to a close. At this year’s annual Town Meeting we will present to you a 21st century police facility.

Many thanks to the Board of Selectmen for placing their confidence and trust in us to perform this important work. We ask that you also extend this same confidence and trust in us by joining us in saying “yes” to investing in our community’s critical infrastructure.

Thank you all! We would not be to this point without your continued support.

Tilton Police Building Study Committee

Kevin LaChapelle, Chair

Ken Dame

Eric Pyra, Vice Chair

Tom Damon

Patricia Consentino, Selectmen’s Representative

Chuck Drew