Last week I boarded an East Lyme school bus with the Board of Selectmen. It was the hottest of days and lucky us, the buses air conditioning wasn’t really working. So with a cold root beer in our hands and the windows down, we took off from the town hall parking lot.

Selectwoman Rose Ann Hardy was in the driver’s seat. Literally.

It was Hardy’s idea to do the tour since there are newbies on the Board of Selectmen (John Birmingham and Mark Nickerson). She thought it would be helpful for them to check out the latest projects.

“A lot of these things come up on the agenda and it’s hard to visualize them,” she said.

The stops included the town garage, the Water and Sewer Department’s operation and management facility, the pump station next to Dad’s Restaurant, well 3B on 45 North Bridebook Road, the new building on Capitol Drive, the emergency operations center, Walnut Hill Road and the boardwalk.

I was most excited to see the progress of the new field services building located at 8 Capitol Dr. The town is using the 30,000 square-foot warehouse to protect the town’s fleet of vehicles and equipment, it will consolidate the public works operations and will offer plenty of storage for many town departments.

Town officials hope to have the building renovated and ready by next year.

“This is really what the doctor ordered,” said Public Works Director Mike Giannattasio.