Waterford — Back when the current town hall opened in 1984 in the building of the old Jordan School, officials who worked inside likely didn’t foresee the restrooms would last 40 years.

Yet through nearly a half-decade that has seen town personnel come and go, the restrooms’ original toilets, sinks, walls, floors and waste pipes are still in use. The fixtures are the same today as they were back then.

There are six restrooms in the town hall building: four multiple-use restrooms and two for single use. In the men’s room, there are two urinals that don’t work, and the others have frequent issues with clogging, Public Works Director Gary Schneider said.

After nearly five years, the town is approaching a start date for a renovation project that will make the building’s restrooms fully handicap accessible.

“We’re trying to get every single public building we have ADA access and ADA-compliant restrooms,” First Selectman Rob Brule said last Wednesday. The Americans with Disabilities Act is a law that protects the rights of people with disabilities.

Town officials began to look at problems with the restrooms in 2018, at which time they cited issues with the condition of surfaces, sinks and toilets, Schneider wrote in an October 2022 email to Brule. Over the years, the building’s original cast iron drain piping had narrowed, he said, which led toilets to overflow and damage the floors and ceilings below the second floor restrooms.

Since then, rising costs of materials and labor have caused the project’s cost to rise from an original estimate of $175,000 to the most recent amount of $490,000, Schneider said. At Monday night’s RTM meeting, members of the town agreed to an additional $125,000 of funding for the project, bringing its total cost to $490,000.

Of that money, $472,000 will be used to pay Branford-based general contractor A. Secondino & Sons, Inc., for the work. The other $18,000 will be held as a contingency fund, which Schneider said he requested for any unforeseen expenses.

The contingency fund exists because once the contractor starts poking in the building’s walls, they don’t know what they’re going to find, Brule said. The town would rather keep some extra money on hand to deal with those unforeseen costs, rather than having them halt work on the project, Schneider said.

The restrooms will feature new toilets, urinals, sinks, dividers, toilet paper holders and soap dispensers that are all handicap accessible.

During renovations, at least two restrooms will remain open, Schneider said.

Besides changes to the restrooms, the contractor will need to replace the waste piping throughout the building, Schneider said. They will open up walls and ceilings to see where the piping goes and repair any damage to those surfaces during that process, Schneider said.

“They’re going to be in people’s offices,“ Brule said. “It’s going to be an intrusive project but a much needed one.”

The Representative Town Meeting agreed to waive the traditional 15-day waiting period so the town can enter into a contract immediately. Once that contract is signed, the contractor will have 150 days to complete the work, barring unforeseen circumstances, such as problems acquiring materials, that could extend that date.

d.drainville@theday.com