Lewisboro will lease trailers for temporary police HQ

By NEAL RENTZ

The Lewisboro Police Department will soon have a new temporary home.

The Town Board voted unanimously Sept. 14 to move forward and temporarily lease three office trailers with a $161,000 contract of at least 18 months from the WillScot company.

The trailers will be placed at the highway garage site, located at 11 Main St., South Salem.

The Katonah-Lewisboro School District is ending its years-long agreements with the town that provided office space at the campus of the former Lewisboro Elementary School. Town departments have already moved from the property to an office building the town purchased on Route 35 last year, but the police department is still located in trailers at the old school site.

“It’s a stopgap,” Town Supervisor Tony Gonçalves said in describing the trailers. He said it will take at least 18 months to construct a new police headquarters at 81 Spring St. in South Salem.

Police Chief David Alfano did research on options for a temporary home for his department prior to the construction of a new facility, Gonçalves said.

Alfano said that after the Town Board voted he would contact the company, which will outfit the trailers with the police department’s specifications. There is no start date yet for when the police department will move into the trailers, he said. 

Councilman Richard Sklarin proposed to table a vote to move forward with a potential lease until the Town Board’s Oct. 26 meeting, but he could not obtain a second on his motion. Sklarin said the board should not act on a potential lease until after Katonah-Lewisboro residents and taxpayers vote on a referendum to create an early education center next month. A previous version of the proposal was turned down by voters in May. 

Delaying the vote to lease the trailers could save the town thousands of dollars, Sklarin said.

After his motion to table was not seconded, Sklarin eventually joined his Town Board colleagues to vote in favor of the contract.

In a related matter, the board voted 4-0 to approve a contract with Waltz Electrical Contracting for the electrical hookup at the trailers at a maximum cost of $9,500.

Councilwoman Julia Hadlock recused herself from the discussion and vote because her husband is an electrician who submitted a bid quote with the town, Gonçalves said.

In a matter related to the construction of the new police department, the board voted unanimously to go to public bid for a test of a geothermal well and the test analysis. Geothermal is being considered for the new police headquarters, Gonçalves said.

Sustainability Committee Bob Fischman has been working with the engineers designing a potential geothermal system, Gonçalves noted, adding the engineers have created a design for the system.

Geothermal is more cost efficient than other energy systems whether there is significant heat or cold outside, Fischman said. 

“The geothermal system is always seeing the 55-degree ground temperature,” he said. 

The engineers are seeking to learn how effectively the geothermal system would dissipate heat, Fischman said. 

Sklarin asked what the cost of a geothermal system would be compared to the cost of a traditional air pump system.

“The upfront cost is going to be significantly more. It could be $180 to $200,000 more,” Fischman said. “However, with the geothermal system you’re getting a 40% federal tax credit.”

“The payback for geothermal versus a standard air source heat pump system should be, give or take, four years,” Fischman said. The projected energy savings for a geothermal is about $5,000 annually, he said. 

Silt barriers and other controls will be put in place so runoff from the system would not go into wetlands or other environmentally sensitive areas, Fischman said.