This fall we added a 14' x 20' vault to our town office building with some other minor office renovations.  Conklin Assoc. out of Hyde Park were our contractors and Jay Caroli was the architect.  The vault has radiant heat which is nice as I hear some vaults have little or no heat. We purchased some roller & regular shelving from Marrotti.  Approx. cost not including vault door was around $75,000.  You are welcome to come visit anytime.         

 

We built an addition on our office about 12 years ago, doubling its size and quadrupling the size of the vault.  The big pluses are - instead of desks we installed formica counters all around the office at desk height with file cabinets and such underneath for drawer space.  this saved money on furniture, gives us lots of space to spread out and gives a uniform look to the space.  I do wish I one space where I could stand at the counter rather than reaching across my desk area but usually I just get up an walk around if Ihave to talk with someone about paperwork for a long time.  We added a pretty good-sized airlock entry way and have installed peg board with holders for all those pamphlets and info hand outs we get.  In the vault we got heavy duty metal shelving from a local hardware store on special order.  And we use roller shelving.  While all this was going on I had a portable office in the school.  The card index was there with my computer and such.  Every morning I came to the office and took the most recent land record books up to the school along with two bins with dog license and vital record forms; then I brought them back each afternoon.  The public was very understanding about having to make requests for docs out of the older books.  I was not comfortable moving everything out of the vault for insecure storage during the construction process.  They built the addition to the vault around the old one and then there was one horrendous day when we took everything out, covered it with plastic, and they cut through the wall with a concrete saw making the worst mess you can imagine.  But we got it all cleaned up and moved all the records back.  I very strongly recommend that you build a vault that looks too big for now.  The space fills up quickly and, as it is the most expensive part of the process, it is worth doing it only once.

But moving might actually be easier.  I think it would be acceptable to close for a week, with lots of prior notice, and just do the move all at once.

----- Original Message -----

From: Town of Hardwick

To: [log in to unmask]

Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2011 2:59 PM

Subject: Town office renovations???

Afternoon Everyone:

The Town of Hardwick has begun the process of looking to relocate our Town Offices from the current location at the Memorial Building to the larger space that used to house the Hardwick Health Center. I have been given the task of gathering information for the process of moving the Town Clerk’s Office.  I would really appreciate hearing from any of you that have been through this process. All feedback would be appreciated, but anyone who can offer information on the questions below, that would be great.

Did you do a full move or just a remodel?

Did you have to construct a new vault? If so who did you use for the construction?

If you constructed a new vault would you mind sharing what the cost was? (We are thinking about taking the vault doors we have here with us to the new location, anyone try such a task?)

How did you facilitate the move, close down or move over weekends?

Any suggestions on things you have that you can’t live without? We are looking for ideas on new shelving or other items to make the office the most productive.

Would anyone be willing to allow us to visit your new offices? We are thinking of taking some pictures to get ideas for the architect.

 

Thank you in advance for all help you can offer.

Alberta Miller
Hardwick Town Clerk
P.O. Box 523
Hardwick, Vermont 05843
802-472-5971 Phone
802-472-3793 Fax
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