Construction Begins On New Town Office Space

LEWISBORO – Construction has begun on new Lewisboro town offices in the Cross River Plaza, which will help make the town more compliant with the American’s With Disabilities Act (ADA).

The offices will be located in an empty storefront next to Treat yogurt behind the old D’Agostino supermarket. The town plans to move various departments from the Town House on Main Street and its Onatru building, because the offices are located on the second floors, to the new single-floor location.

“The town court will move there [from the Town House] and we’ll use the court clerk’s office as an ADA-compliant bathroom,” town Supervisor Charles Duffy said. “I want to move the Finance Department there and vacate the second floor.  We can move the supervisor’s office downstairs as well. If we do that, we won’t have the need to put in an elevator.”

The Zoning, Planning and Building Departments, along with the assessor’s office, all on the second floor of the Onatru location, would also move to the Cross River site.

“We have a grant to make [the Onatru building] ADA compliant and with them gone, we can begin construction,” Duffy said.

Duffy said he would like to eventually move the Parks and Recreation Department from Goldens Bridge to the Onatru location where “it will be in an actual park.”

The owner of the Cross River Plaza is paying for the renovations to the space in the plaza that will accommodate the new town offices, where the duct work has already been put in place.

Duffy said $61,000 has been set aside in the 2011 budget to cover moving and rental costs for the year.

“We have about 200 filing cabinets to move out of Onatru,” he said.

The town expects to pay about $50,000 annually in rent for the space.

Duffy said construction should take about six to eight weeks. The town should be ready to move in, he says, some time in September.

 

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