By ARCHIE MOUNTAIN
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NEWPORT — Newporters have a million reasons to officially kick off a fundraising drive to help cover some of the construction costs of a new community center.
An anonymous person has offered to donate $1 million, if the community can raise an additional $2 million. Together, that would cover approximately half of the overall cost of the new facility.
Todd Fratzel, co-chairman of the Newport Board of Selectmen, and also co-chairman of the Community Center Committee, broke down the projected numbers for his fellow board members Monday night.
Preliminary numbers for the one-story structure have been projected at $6,600,550, according to Fratzel. He’s hopeful the committee can get that number down to just under $6 million.
“If we come up with $2 million plus $1, hopefully we will get voters to bond about $3 million somewhere between 20 and 30 years,” he said.
He said the estimated tax increase on a 20-year bond for $3 million would initially be about 57 cents per $1,000 on the Newport tax rate.
“We’re trying to get to a point where we can provide a guaranteed maximum price to go before voters next May,” Fratzel continued.
With an affirmative vote, final design would start immediately with construction scheduled to commence in September 2019 and occupancy in June 2020.
A preliminary design calls for a one-story structure with 19,720 square feet. It would be located next to the Little League baseball field on Meadow Road in downtown Newport.
Cost estimates broken down call for preliminary site development, $1,039,000; and general construction, $4,361,000, for a subtotal of $5.4 million.
The contractor’s fee came in at $162,000. The total including that fee would be $5,562,000. A suggested construction contingency amount of 19 percent came in at $556,000 and total remaining architecture, engineering and construction administration, $249,550.That brings the total to $6,367,550.
The total estimated owner fees for soft costs amounted to $233,000 for a final preliminary total of $6,600,550.
“These numbers are very preliminary,” Fratzel stressed. “The committee is working on getting more details and more numbers and meeting with members again, going through options that might change including air conditioning, exterior façade materials such as stone, glass, metal and interior finishes.
A new community center would replace the current recreation center on Belknap Avenue. No decision has yet been made what would happen with the existing building.
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