Middletown City Meeting on Town Hall and Library Plans - June 24, 2026
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Middletown City Meeting on Town Hall and Library Plans - June 24, 2026
The meeting was called to order at 5:01 PM and adjourned at 5:38 PM. Mayor Nosara provided an extensive update on city building repairs and future plans, including for City Hall and the Russell Library. The committee discussed cost estimates, a potential standalone library referendum in 2027, and the status of an environmental impact study.
Consent Calendar
- A motion to approve the minutes from March 31st was made, seconded, and approved unanimously.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No public comments were received as only board members and the mayor were present.
Discussion Items
- Mayor's Update on City Buildings (New Business, Item 5): Mayor Nosara outlined an aggressive repair plan for multiple city facilities: City Hall (new chiller, rug replacement), City Yard (roof repair via Turner contract), the Tradesman Building, Parks Maintenance Building, Green Street School (heating and AC), the Boathouse ($150,000 for siding, insulation, bathroom repairs), Roosevelt Park (cleanup and minor repairs), and road repairs (planned hot-in-place and repaving on Ferry Street, Prospect, top of Spring Street). He also mentioned a parking deck behind Milly Plaza using 2020 bond funds, demolition of the AT&T building on DeCoven Drive for temporary parking, and plans to address neglected elementary school roofs (Wesley and Spencer) via a November 2026 bond referendum.
- Library Future Discussion: Mayor Nosara stated his preference for a standalone library referendum in 2027, separate from other infrastructure bonds, to improve chances of passage. He noted the current cost estimate is around $58-59 million, with annual escalation. Several committee members (Sarah, Julie, Steve) questioned the cost disparity compared to Manchester’s new library (approximately $750/sq ft vs. $1,000+/sq ft for Russell). The committee emphasized that partial renovation of existing historical elements adds complexity and cost but should be presented as a selling point. Grant opportunities (CIF, Urban Act, historic preservation) were discussed as potential offsets.
- City Hall Direction: Mayor Nosara confirmed the city will not purchase the former Citizens Bank building; instead, they will remain at the current site and pursue incremental repairs. A potential 20-year lease option for mechanical systems (similar to the Rec Center) was noted as an alternative for City Hall. The possibility of using space vacated by U Fusion (under the police station) as swing space for the library during construction was also raised.
- Environmental Impact Study (Item 4E): Ramona reported that engineers from Tie and Bond visited the Russell Library site on June 22-23, 2026, to conduct an environmental impact study. No initial report has been received yet. Funding is available via a separate purchase order.
- Budget Status: Two purchase orders remain open: one with Silver Petrocelli (~$18,800 remaining) for potential value engineering, and a new one for hazardous building materials assessments at both Russell Library and 139 Broad Street (~$14,000 total). Unexpended funds of about $12,000 will be returned to the general fund. The committee agreed to keep meeting periodically through November 2027 to maintain momentum, with possible SBA information sessions closer to the referendum.
- Committee Continuation: Chairman Fico and others expressed the need to continue the committee until the library referendum passes, to avoid losing progress with potential new council members after the 2027 elections. Amy noted that the existing Silver Petrocelli purchase order includes funding for community information sessions.
Key Outcomes
- The minutes from March 31, 2026 were approved unanimously.
- The committee will continue meeting at least periodically, with the next meeting scheduled for July 28, 2026.
- The Mayor’s plan for a standalone library referendum in November 2027 was acknowledged, with the committee to work toward real cost estimates and public outreach.
- The environmental impact study is underway; results will inform revised cost estimates.
- The committee agreed to return approximately $12,000 in unexpended funds to the general fund.
- The meeting adjourned at 5:38 PM.
Meeting Transcript
All right, I'm going to call the meeting to order at 5.01 p.m. First agenda item is public comment, but I only see board members and the mayor on, so I think we can skip public comment. Can we make a motion to approve the minutes from March 31st? Thank you, Aiman. Do we have a second? I'll second it. Thank you, Julie. Um, any discussion. All in favor. Aye. All right. Okay. Minutes are approved. And um without objection, I would like to move new business next because we have Mayor Nosara joining us tonight. I know he's a very busy man. So any objection to moving item five to the next um agenda item. Nope. All right, Gene. So uh thank you for joining us tonight. We wanted to have you join our meeting tonight to give us an update on town hall and what your plans are moving forward. Sure, thank you for inviting me. And thank you for for all you you do um with the library and city hall. Um we've had conversations, Ramona and Amon and Anthony. Uh um in individually, uh, I I don't know if we we've met collectively. Um we're at that point where we're working aggressively to repair our buildings um that quite frankly have been neglected um for for a long time uh because it's so difficult to get the revenue to keep up. Um, but it's still no excuse. So we um but I won't go down that road. Uh so we have an aggressive plan to um a course, as everybody knows, repair city hall, um city yard, uh the tradesman building, and the parks maintenance building. That estimate is is being worked on now. We have we have a contract uh with Turner to begin the roof repair and rebuilding at City Yard. There it's extensive uh amount of work that's been neglected for so long. Um and so that should commence very soon. Um additionally, we're working on Green Street School to bring back heating and air conditioning, which is um inefficient, and um quite frankly, half of the building is is not in service. It's still heat there, but an AC, but it's only in spots of the building. Um we have plans to um this summer to do some uh cosmetic work on the boat house, which is siding, which is in dire need of repair and insulations, uh siding and insulation from the outside. Uh the the uh bathroom in that building is is uh is dangerous, so that has to be repaired. Um and maybe a little work in the in the locker rooms and racks that hold the votes, but um not sure because we only want to allocate about 150,000 for the boat house because we're trying to be careful with with spending, of course. Um City Hall is scheduled to get a new chiller because we're down to two, and there's five or six that should be operational, which is scary. Um so that's that uh work should um start in about a month or two. Um additionally, um we're working on um Roosevelt Park, which is in dire straits, uh Miller Street. Those if you're familiar with that, it's disgraceful that we've allowed that park to become that way for the poor section of our community. Still uses it. It's disgraceful, it's disgraceful. So we're gonna do what we can to clean it up and add uh uh uh a driveway in there and um um begin to do some minor repairs as well. You know, we have um so that's that's the 2025 bond. Um which uh we want to be careful. We don't want to, you know, it's not designed to spend all at once because it it will wreck the the uh debt service. Um our road bond is is being accessed. We have a very aggressive plan for road repair. We're starting next week.
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