NEWFANE — With heating an issue as well as energy efficiency, the Selectboard has voted to close the Williamsville Hall for the winter season, from Nov. 1 to April 1.
Myra Fassler and Steve Levine of the Williamsville Hall Committee visited the Oct. 19 regular Selectboard meeting to provide the board with an update on the hall.
A ceiling insulation project is in the works, and Levine estimated it would be finished “within the next few weeks.”
After the insulation project is complete, Levine said, the next job is to repair the hall's windows.
He suggested the board “hire a good carpenter to check the sashes,” and “Walter Phelps will donate hardware whenever we need it - it's good-quality stuff.”
Fassler and Levine also notified the board they plan to install double-cell cellular shades with sidetracks because of their energy-efficiency and beauty - they are in the process of receiving bids for the job.
“We think they'll look better in the hall” than window quilts, Levine said.
Fassler told the board she thinks it is crucial to work on the windows.
“We're losing so much heat” from the “great expanse of glass,” she said.
The committee's estimate for the work on the windows and shades is $6,000 to $7,000.
The ceiling insulation work will deplete most of the committee's funds, Levine told the board, but there is still $5,000 in the town's hall capital fund. He said the committee and the board can “reopen the discussion in April, when we're ready to do the window project."
Levine told the board he learned the hall's boiler and heat circulator is too small for the building, also adding to the struggle to keep the hall warm. He said he received a quote of $23,383 to replace the boiler and the circulator, and to resize the pipes.
He asked the board to “consider [putting] it in the budget” for next year.
“Could the hall be open year-round” with these improvements, board member Marion Dowling asked Levine and Fassler.
Levine said improving the heating could at least allow the building to remain open longer, if not stay open throughout the entire winter.
“The hall is a great asset to the community,” Levine told the board, noting, “one of the biggest uses of the hall is the new Rock River Players.”
The theater group recently presented the play Our Town, in four sold-out shows, raising more than $1,000 for the Hall Fund. Levine said the group plans more performances.
“We need this building to be saving fuel,” Fassler said.
“And be used,” Levine added.