Halfmoon Councilman Jim Bold is retiring in December after 14 years on the town board but not before seeing through one of the most visible projects of his political career.
The new Halfmoon Town Hall is being constructed next to the current building off of Route 236. The $7 million project is expected to be completed this November. The town broke ground on the project earlier this year.
The key design element of the new building is a single corridor for all resident services. The one-floor building will have just one main entrance. After entering, residents will be able to go straight ahead for the town meeting room or turn right for the corridor.
Steve Rowland is the project’s head architect.
When the residents of the town come in, they’re sort of on a streetscape,` Rowland said. `Instead of stores that they visit and window shop, there are town departments. It makes it a lot easier to find where they need to go. The one main entrance cuts down on the confusion as to where to go, and it also helps on security.`
`We were trying to create a facility where the residents will be proud of the architecture, the functionality, the appearance, and the comfort of the building, and where our employees will have a safe environment,` Bold added.
In an effort to save energy and minimize environmental impact, the new town hall will use 42 geothermal wells that will serve as the building’s sole heating and cooling source. The 8-inch wells were drilled to a depth of 400 feet.
Rowland said that the temperature of the earth, which is mostly shale at that depth, is a constant 50 degrees.
`It’s using the ground as its heat sink rather than air. There’s a lot of heat energy in 50-degree air,` he said. `Once you concentrate all that heat together, you’ll get a lot more work out of it.`
The geothermal system is expected to pay for itself within six years, after which the town expects to begin saving money over a traditional system.
The raised dais of the new boardroom, where board members sit, will be semi-circular. It is designed to look like the side of a ship’s hull, matching the town’s seal. The meeting room is also expected to have 10 percent increased seating capacity over the current town hall.
Another feature is a large 10-by-28-foot mural just inside the main entrance. Bold said the town is looking at using a Capital District artist and that the early sketches depict `a collage of events throughout the life of the town.`
The main construction contractors for the project were Malone and Tate Builders out of Schenectady. Julius Gintli is the company’s project superintendent.
`It’s like a heavy-duty building; it’s not like your typical building,` said Gintli. `It’s built as a place of refuge. It’s built to withstand the elements.`
The design was developed with the help of an eight-person committee, which included four resident representatives.
The project’s cost will be paid for through a combination of capital reserves and long-term bonds.
Councilwoman Regina Parker called the project a dream come true.
`We promised to do this for the community, to be able to provide them with a building that can meet all of their requirements and the town services. It’s just going to be an awesome thing,` she said. `This is the biggest project that I’ve worked on since I’ve been here.`
Rowland also expressed pride in the project.
`It goes from sketches, to layouts, to paper, to eventually the whole set of building drawings and then [the contractors] make it a reality,` Rowland said. `There’s nothing more gratifying than seeing it from a stage when we had absolutely nothing on a piece of paper to this when it’s done. That’s why I do this.“