BRISTOL — Bristol officials are moving ahead with efforts to tackle around $1 million worth of projects at Holley Hall and the Lawrence Memorial Library.

The library this past fall received $483,000 through the U.S. Treasury’s Capital Projects Fund for Libraries to put toward a new heating, ventilation and air conditioning system (HVAC); building envelope repairs for structural integrity; enhancements to internet services; and the creation of a quiet space for community members to work, study and have telehealth appointments.

More recently, the town secured a $325,853 Municipal Energy Resilience Program (MERP) Implementation Grant for energy-related upgrades for Holley Hall, including building envelope improvements and HVAC and mechanical upgrades.

Selectboard member Ian Albinson at the board’s Dec. 30 meeting gave town officials an update on the MERP grant award and next steps. He noted there’s a couple of ways the town could move forward, the first of which is to take the scope of work, hire an architecture firm to flesh it out and put the project out to bid.

Albinson explained that Middlebury architecture firm Vermont Integrated Architecture had provided two options for how to approach the energy-related upgrades to Holley Hall, one more expensive than the other. The town decided to proceed with the more expensive option for the grant. And while it did not receive the full award amount it applied for, there are capital reserve funds that could help offset that, Albinson said.

He noted that another option for how to move forward with the work would be to engage with a contractor at the start of the project. Albinson said a suggestion that came out of a recent meeting among those working with the MERP grant was to reach out to local contractors to see if they’d have any interest.

“I’m putting together a scope of work both for Holley Hall and for the library, since a lot of those things that are happening with the library grant, which is separate, fall into the same areas; both insulating, energy systems changing out, air exchange, things like that,” he said.

Albinson said he’s started to reach out to some local contractors. The project would include designing and building with the physical work taking place in 2026.

He noted that a recommendation was to have all of the potential contractors meet at once.

“It’s a way for us to, say, present the project, and what we would do is we would take the MERP project as well as the library project, and potentially combine them so you’ve got an over-$1 million project, and is that better for a company; is that more enticing,” Albinson explained.   

Selectboard members pointed to a couple of other benefits of having contractors meet at the same time, such as generating a list of questions so that everyone is bidding on the same page.

Next steps could include continuing to reach out to contractors and identifying who town officials would like to be included in a potential meeting.

GRANTS UPDATE

Town officials at the Dec. 30 meeting also got an update from Bristol Grant Administrator Freeda Power on other grants the town is working with. The update was the first of what should become a reoccurring agenda item.

Powers provided a written summary of the town’s open grants, which she noted currently total around 20.

“A lion’s share of your grants are to function the government of the town and they are reimbursement-based,” Powers told the board. “You actually have a lot of grant funding doing your work for the town right now, so they’re vitally important to how Bristol runs.”

The town’s active grants include a Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grant for a scoping study in the Mountain Street area.

“Apparently you guys have some stormwater runoff issues in that area that you’d like to get studied for some solution ideas and cost estimates,” Powers said.

She noted that there has been no movement on the grant, which closes in November 2026. She recommended that the town publish a request for proposal for the project if the town would like to manage the grant itself or contract the project out.

Powers’s update also highlighted Bristol’s three open Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) events, which include a Halloween 2019 storm that wiped out the town’s fishing platform, as well as storms that damaged Briggs Hill Road in July 2023 and July 2024.

Powers noted that work on the fishing platform has been completed, though the project was still open with FEMA as of Dec. 30. Powers said she was prepared to handle the close out of the project, which had a deadline of Dec. 31.

Powers recommended that the town keep Briggs Hill Road damage claims under a single disaster for 2023. She noted in her written summary that doing so would make all aspects of managing and costing the site easier for staff and FEMA.

Powers pointed out that the town is in the midst of a busy time for grants, with some existing grants closing and new opportunities opening up.

“(The town is) closing up a lot of stuff, requesting a lot of reimbursement money right now, so that’s good news for the town; getting some funds coming back in because you’ve done some spending,” she said. “And then looking ahead at securing some funds for projects that we know have funding gaps, as well as just taking advantage of some grant opportunities that are launching, coming in the next couple of weeks actually.”