BRUNSWICK

Representatives from Portland architect Scott Simons joined construction manager Peter Warren and the Town Hall Renovation Committee for a meeting Oct. 24 at the McLellan Building, to go over final plans required to turn the building into the new town office.

Warren, from South Freeport, is scheduled to begin converting the building’s first and second floors into municipal office and public meeting space on Dec. 9. It is scheduled to be done by the first week of February; however, what the project will cost has yet to be divulged.

Town Councilors David Watson, Gerald Favreau and Margo Knight make up the renovation committee. Favreau said Friday that archi- tectural drawings should be complete by Nov. 15, which will allow Warren to solicit bids from contractors.

“Hopefully, we’ll have all the bids in by the end of November, so we’ll have a final job price and construction budget,” Favreau said. “It’s all fluid right now.”

An original renovation estimate of $250,000 was floated several years ago, but eventually swelled to $800,000.

Favreau thinks that number will drop once the bids start to come in.

“We believe it’ll be competitive because it’s inside work in the winter, and (Warren) is trying to get local contractors to bid on the job,” he said.

For months, the uncertainty surrounding the project’s budget has been a source of contention among town officials and the public.

Town councilors Benet Pols and John Perreault asked Town Manager Gary Brown for an updated estimate of the project costs during the council’s Oct. 21 meeting. However, Brown would not disclose the budget, saying only that Warren’s “preliminary numbers are not way out of line with what was presented in the (Capital Improvement Plan budget),” which is about $800,000.

Of that amount, $750,000 is construction and $50,000 is design.

However, regardless of the budget questions, the town has no choice but to proceed with the renovation. The existing town offices at 28 Federal St. already have been promised to Brunswick Development Corp., which already has a signed purchase and sale agreement — effective April 1, 2014 — for both the 28 and 30 Federal Street properties with Wiscasset-based nonprofit Coastal Enterprises Inc.

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