As the White Rock Museum and Archives Society prepares to celebrate 100 years of White Rock's well-known railway station, another building is also celebrating a milestone anniversary.
Up the hill from the railway station, White Rock City Hall will be celebrating its golden jubilee, having spent 50 years as the headquarters for all of the city's operations since opening July 6, 1963.
Having started as a multi-purpose civic building, the current City Hall initially also played host to the city's police detachment, library and court clerks. In fact, the current council chamber was originally built as the White Rock Courthouse, which is why White Rock Mayor Wayne Baldwin's chair is so high up.
"It used to be a judge's chair and the room beside the chambers was the judge's chambers," explained Baldwin.
However, in the five decades since opening, many of those other operations have since moved out as White rock continued to grow, leaving the entirety of the facility for city hall's increasing demand for space.
"Now the purpose of the building has changed considerably since it was first built, and so any money we've spent on the building since has been spent on accommodating the change in purpose," said Baldwin.
But like all old things, some upgrades are in order.
"The biggest thing would be the heating ventilation system, which is really bad," said Baldwin. "We need to do a lot of work on things like getting better windows in, we've got single pane, so the energy efficiency of our windows and doors is also bad."
Another key upgrade, said Baldwin, is to improve the appearance of the building.
"It hasn't really been touched much since it was first built, so the appearance both on the inside and outside has to be improved," he said.
Despite the upgrades needed, Baldwin said the building is still serving its purpose well and will likely continue to do so into the future.
"The building itself is well-built. It's a strong structure, the roof is still good and so on, but obviously changes need to be made to keep up with the times and the expectations of the public," he said.
Binghamton University will save an estimated $355,000 in energy costs every year and avoid sending more than 2,190 tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually into the atmosphere thanks to a number of energy efficiency projects, the New York State Emergy Research and Development Authority announced.
BU has received $740,000 from the agency. Projects include energy efficiency measures at seven new East Campus dorms; a new Collegiate Center with kitchen and dining facilities, multipurpose rooms, computer labs, lounges and offices; and renovations at the Recreation Center.
The NYSERDA-funded projects for new construction are projected to be 17 to 30 percent more energy efficient than the state’s energy code requires, depending on the building. Measures include high-efficiency lighting; occupancy-based lighting controls; insulation; high-efficiency heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems; variable-speed pumps and motors; and daylight harvesting controls, which is a system that dims artificial light in response to available natural light.
“The implementation of our projects will greatly enhance our energy conservation efforts, reduce cost and reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” BU President Harvey Stenger said in a statement.
Overall, the measures BU is taking are projected to reduce electricity use by 1.8 million kilowatt hours and fossil fuel use by 18,437 million Btu annually, the equivalent of powering and heating about 260 homes for a year, according to NYSERDA. They will also reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 2,190 tons annually, the equivalent of taking 438 cars off the road.
Funding is through the agency’s New Construction Program, which provides technical support to design teams and financial incentives to building owners. The projects also support Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Build Smart NY initiative, which aims to increase energy efficiency in state buildings by 20 percent over seven years.
“There were three things for fire stations that were rated high [for need],” Fire Chief Alan Mannel said. “One was a generator which we already have, one was the exhaust ventilation system which we got and the other was a fire sprinkler system.”
The fire department/municipal building was approved for a new sprinkler system late last year.
The majority of the funding is being handled by “Assistance to Firefighters Grant” – a nationwide grant though FEMA and Homeland Security. The grant will pay for 90 percent of the cost to install the system.
“It’s certainly not an easy grant to get but it’s well worth the effort,” Mannel said.
Mannel said he hopes to have the sprinkler system installed throughout the Municipal Building and the fire station in about a year’s time. According to the U.S. Fire Administration Tropical Fire Research Series, back in 2001 most fires in fire stations often originate in the fire department vehicles – 44 percent – while the rest of the damages are caused by structural fires.
Framingham State University will eliminate some infrastructure improvements planned for the Hemenway Hall academic building renovation in light of the project's increased cost from rising construction prices around the state, university officials said.
The university will forgo modernizing the interiors of existing classrooms and laboratories in the building, deferring the work until funding is available, said Dan Magazu, a university spokesman.
Earlier this month, officials said they might have to scale back parts of the $64 million project after rising construction costs led the state to drive up the project estimate by $10 million.
"As we anticipated, some of the planned infrastructure improvements to the original building have been eliminated from the scope of the work to balance the project budget," Magazu said in an email.
The main parts of the Hemenway Hall project, which received approval for $54 million in state funding in 2010, will still move forward, including a new science wing with 16 laboratories equipped with cutting-edge technology by 2014, as well as an update the building's existing windows and heating and ventilation system, Magazu said.
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