A funding shortfall that has caused some bad feelings among officials in Griswold may soon be resolved. Town voters go to the polls May 5 to decide if $760,000 from the town’s surplus account will be used to finish work on the new Griswold Senior Community Wellness Center on Taylor Hill Road.

The building is about 80 percent complete, according to Building Committee Chairman Rob Parrette, with most of the work to be completed focused on interior items, such as doors, lighting, kitchen amenities and flooring.

Voters approved a $7.5 million bond issue for the project in 2019.

Town Finance Director Erik Christensen says at the time building committee members were relying on numbers provided by the project’s architects, but unfortunately, bid prices came in higher. Committee members have been searching for grant money, and are still awaiting decisions from federal and state officials on grant applications.

Senior Center Director Tina Falck says she had been seeking grant money for the project even before the bond issue was approved.

“Grants don’t always move easy,” she said. “Leadership changes in Hartford, leadership changes in Griswold — grants get paused for significant periods of time.”

The pandemic hasn’t helped either — for grant decisions, or construction.

“There’ve been delays in obtaining materials, with factories shutting down, plus increased costs in production caused by delays,” Christensen said. “There’s been a 12-week delay just for COVID-related issues, including some contractors having to leave the site for a while, because some of their workers had the virus.”

The funding shortfall caused work on the building to stop in mid-March, save for a few “punch-list” items. The shortfall also drew the ire of some residents posting on social media, as well as those serving on the town’s Board of Finance. According to the board’s Feb. 23 meeting minutes, Chairman Scott Davis said the panel wasn’t made aware of the funding shortfall until January, and that plans for the project were incomplete when the contract was signed in 2019. He says the building committee instead sought grant funding on its own.

“There were a number of bad gambles that contributed to the situation we’re in,” Davis said at a later board meeting. “The biggest gamble being we would be able to obtain grant funding to bridge that known gap. I do believe through our inquiry, we have prevented a similar situation from happening in the future.”

Davis says the town can’t afford to leave the uncompleted building as is.

“The longer the building is vacant, the greater the risk of maintenance issues, vandalism, and break-ins,” he said. “In addition, there are subcontractors that have agreed to fixed pricing, but that’s for a limited time. Further reaction on our part could result in greater costs and greater delays.”

Building Committee members presented to the Board of Finance a $772,186 list of work still to be done to get the new senior center a Certificate of Occupancy. It’s $12,186 more than the appropriation up before voters, but Falck is confident that gap can be filled through donations.

“I’m pleased that the referendum will occur,” he said. “The town has come up with the best solution, and we’ll go with it. We have a path now to do what’s right for our seniors.”

Not everyone is pleased that the referendum will happen. Board of Finance member Alex Grzelak says the expenditure from the town’s surplus account will hurt Griswold’s finances for many years to come. “We are paying for something in the short term that, in the long term, could cost us a lot more than $700,000, because even 0.1 percent (interest) on a bond could mean tens of thousands of extra dollars.”

But, Christensen says he doesn’t see the senior center appropriation as negatively affecting the town’s bonding costs.

The current Griswold Senior Center on Soule Street was built in 1984, and at 4,000 square feet, is “extremely outdated,” according to Falck. “It lacks enough electrical outlets, and can’t serve everything we’re doing. For example, we have numerous sewing machines in our quilting classes, with extension cords all over the place, creating fall risks for seniors.”

She says there’s also an extreme lack of privacy in the current building, with no separate rooms available for seniors or others to discuss private matters, such as seeking help with their income taxes, or heating assistance. She says the lack of privacy even makes foot examinations very difficult.

“A larger center is essential. It has to happen,” she said.

The new facility is almost four times larger than the current building, and will provide such amenities as a library/computer room, a large kitchen that can accommodate the Elderly Nutrition Program and Meals on Wheels, a medical office, multiple multi-purpose function rooms, more energy- efficient heating and cooling, and plenty of parking.

It’s also in close proximity to three local senior housing complexes.

Falck emphasizes the new center will serve the needs of the town’s growing senior population for years to come. She says statistics show by 2040, the town’s population over 65 will increase by 57 percent, while those under 65 will grow by only 1.5 percent. “More seniors, more bodies, more need”, she said.

The pandemic caused the current senior center to shut down in March of last year, and it remains closed to visitors. But Falck stresses her staff and volunteers, some of them seniors themselves, haven’t been idle, doing numerous outreach programs for seniors with delivery of meals and other food, wellness checks, assistance in applying for fuel assistance, Social Security, Medicare, and food stamps.

“No town money or taxpayer money was used,” she said of the pandemic outreach. “It’s all done through fundraisers and donations.”

The May 5 vote takes place at the high school, with the polls open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. If the measure fails, town officials say the money will probably be sought through a budget line item that would cause a tax increase.

Kevin G. Gorden of Norwich is a regular contributor to the Times. You can reach him at kgorden@comcast.net.