Only Half of RTM Takes Tour of Penfield Pavilion On Eve of Committee Votes

Only half of Representative Town Meeting members have gone on a tour of Penfield Pavilion on the eve of committee votes on a $3.28 million funding request to demolish and rebuild the pavilion's center and westerly sections.

Town Fiscal Officer Paul Hiller said about 22 RTM members went on a tour last weekend and on Saturday, and three RTM members came to Sunday afternoon's tour. The last tour is at 6 p.m. Monday, Hiller said.

"After that, it's by appointment only. And there's a fee," Hiller quipped.

Town Public Works Director Richard White led Sunday's tour, with Hiller, Gerald Lombardo, director of the town's Parks and Recreation Department, and Linda Crowley, a member of the Penfield Pavilion Building Committee, on hand to answer questions. Sunday's tour lasted about 90 minutes.

RTM committees on Monday and Wednesday will vote on the $3.28 million funding request, followed by a vote of the full RTM at 8 p.m. Sept. 27 in McKinley School. The RTM is the last town body that needs to approve the funding request; the Board of Selectmen and Board of Finance unanimously approved the request earlier this summer.

"The condition of the building is in pretty bad shape," Bill Llewellyn, D-7, said after the tour, which his 11-year-old son, Tyler, also attended. "That's the biggest thing, the condition of the building is in bad shape."

Rich Santalesa, R-3, said he was glad he went on Sunday's tour and could see first-hand some of the pavilion's problems. "There weren't any major suprises, but it was definitely informative seeing it all at once and what items were structurally needed," he said.

Joe DeMartino, D-4, said he also was glad he went on the tour because it was more valuable to see what town officials had planned for the new pavilion on site, rather than on paper. DeMartino said he was surprised by the craftsmanship of the second floor on the center section and hoped there was a way to pay tribute to the existing pavilion if the RTM approves the funding request to demolish and rebuild its center and westerly sections. "I think that would be fitting," he said of paying tribute to the existing center section.

"These guys have put a lot of time and thought into the new design...That was evident in the answers I got to my questions," DeMartino added. "I'd like to see them put 2 percent of their efforts into aesthetics of the building and not just functionality."

James Gallagher, chairman of the Penfield Pavilion Building Committee, said several weeks ago that the only aesthetic element on the proposed pavilion was a wave pattern on an exterior deck, an "add alternate" that was designed to break up the expanse of the deck.

White started the tour by renderings of the existing and new pavilions, saying the new pavilion wouldn't have a second story, but would have a cathedral ceiling that matched the height of the existing pavilion. He said lockers in the west wing wouldn't be included in a new west wing and that eliminating the 120 lockers allowed the new pavilion to have more deck space. He said everyone would have access to "good showers and bathrooms" in the new pavilion, where now only people with lockers have access to those amenities.

"The lockers are eliminated in the new plan, but what ends up is better restrooms and showers that everyone can use," White said.

Lombardo said 203 lockers in the new east wing, which was built in 2008 at a cost of $1.5 million, would be available through a lottery before the start of each beach season. People who won the lottery to have a locker would have it from Memorial Day through Labor Day weekend and then a new lottery would be held for the following beach season, Lombardo said.

White said the gathering space in the center section, which is now L-shaped, would be "squared off," which allowed for more deck space but which increased the capacity of the gathering space by only four people.

White said the new pavilion's center and westerly sections would be about a foot higher, from 11 feet to 12 feet, due to Federal Emergency Management Agency requirements and he showed RTM members the difference in elevation by walking to the outdoor deck and comparing the height of the easterly and center sections.

Part of the center section's floor was opened up by the town so RTM members could see the foundation, which White said consisted of joists that varied in condition from better than what RTM members could see to "much worse shape." He said beams, which sit on cinder blocks cemented together, had dry rot, and old iron nails are "pretty much shot." He said the center section's floor slopes down toward the beach because the building has settled.

Nevertheless, White said the 109-year-old center section "has stood and survived some pretty bad storms."

White and company then climbed stairs to the pavilion's second floor, which served as a ballroom in the 1930s and which offered great views of Long Island Sound. "This is their dance floor," White said as RTM members walked around the second floor, which is no longer in use. "This is where they all hung out...They had this as their ballroom."

White noted the floor on the second story was "wavy and you can feel some soft spots."

The idea of including a second floor on the new pavilion was deep-sixed early on by town officials due to the cost.

Lombardo said the plan for a new center and westerly section also includes redoing the pavilion's parking lot. That work includes adding "porous pavement" in an effort to reduce flooding during storms.

The new pavilion would have air conditioning and heating to extend the time it could be used, but Hiller said air conditioning and heating would be monitored when the pavilion is rented for a private party so hosts of the party paid for its use. "If you want it on for your function, you're going to pay to have it on," Hiller said.

White and company also toured the new east wing, which White said would have benefited from better plywood. But he said the budget didn't have a contingency account and town officials ran out of money.

If the RTM rejects the $3.28 million funding request, the town would need money to do a structural analysis of the existing pavilion, Hiller said. "We feel from a safety standpoint, we've got to at least have a structural analysis," he said.

Hiller said the town can't spend on a renovation more than 50 percent of the center and westerly sections' appraised value without elevating the structure to current FEMA regulations. He said a renovation, under FEMA's 50-percent requirement, was therefore capped at $285,000, not including code work, which Hiller said was exempt from the 50-percent calculation. "The roof and facia boards is where you start running into that $285,000 ceiling," he said.

During the tour, Llewellyn said the pavilion was "beat up" and asked if town officials had considered seeking a corporate sponsor for construction of a new center and westerly section to offset some of the cost.

"It's a thought, a thought. It's never been pursued," Hiller said.