Town officials are now focused on getting the new Griswold Senior Community Wellness Center completed. Voters agreed in a referendum May 5 to take $760,000 out of the town’s surplus account to finish the construction project. The referendum passed with 550 in favor of more funding and 280 against.

Work on the Taylor Hill Road complex stopped in mid-March after a funding shortfall was discovered, causing bad feelings among some residents, who claimed mismanagement of funds.

Board of Finance members complained they weren’t made aware of the shortfall until January, and that plans were incomplete when contracts for the project were signed in 2019, after voters approved a $7.5 million bond issue for the work.

Town officials said bid prices came in higher than expected, and a search for grant money to cover the shortfall has come up empty so far, although they still await word on state and federal grant applications.

The building is about 80% complete, and plans are to have a certificate of occupancy issued for the complex by late this year, if not sooner. Building Committee Chairman Rob Parrette says he’s now reaching out to the project’s subcontractors to nail down contracts on various items that need to be completed, and try to keep any cost increases to a minimum. Parette says there’s some initial good news in that work on the building’s ceilings, lighting, flooring, and painting are holding their price, with “flooring being one of the largest dollar value.items.”

He stresses, though, these are just verbal assurances right now.

Parette says one quote he does have is work on an exterior deck for the center.

“It’s $10,000 over (what was first proposed). We are being creative on that, and we don’t know yet what the solution is.” He says he’s not asking to shift funding from another item on the list of tasks to be completed. He says the increase for the deck isn’t surprising, due to spiraling costs involved in its framing.

Parrette says it’s important to lock down the contracts for the various items still to be completed.

“The more we lock down, the faster we lock it down, the better the numbers stay under $760,000 and will dictate when construction can get started,” he said.

Board of Finance members have told the Building Committee that any shifting of funds from one project line item to another must first come before the Finance panel for approval.

“Given the past history, we need a full accounting of every expense as this project comes to a close. I don’t want to get to the point of asking for more money on top of the $760,000,” said finance board member Dan Webster.

Fellow board member Gail Rooke-Norman agrees.

“If this runs over, and we can’t get a (certificate of occupancy) for the building, I will not support sending anything more to referendum. I can’t.” She says the Building Committee will have to outline where the cost savings will have to come.

The resolution approved by the Board of Selectmen sending the project to referendum lists 13 line items to be completed, with maximum amounts to be spent in each area. Any remaining money, which is now estimated at $217,870, would go toward kitchen equipment.

Senior Center Director Tina Falck says she’s pleasantly surprised the referendum issue passed.

“With as much negativity that had been tossed around in town, we couldn’t get a good feel of what the end result would be. The seniors mobilized, and worked together (to get out the vote).”

Falck says she and her staff were “explicitly told not to get involved in influencing the vote. We left it up to the seniors, and they did it on their own.”

Falck admits the complaints about cost overruns, even with the referendum passing, bother her.

“The building contractor warned the Board of Finance back in February that subcontractors agreed to keep its costs the same through April 16, after which there could be an increase.”

She says time was wasted because the same issues were re-hashed “over and over again. I think we could’ve come to a conclusion much faster. But it is what it is. We now move forward with what needs to be done.”