WESTERLO — Preliminary tests for asbestos ahead of a town hall renovation were authorized Tuesday, setting the course for a retry of a project voted down in September. 

Looming among the town board’s larger questions is whether to consider short-term financing, which would avoid the permissive referendum that allowed voters to reject the project last year.

The asbestos testing is a small step, but not without controversy — some residents said ditching the property and building anew would be less costly — and it is the only firm decision the town board, meeting as the building committee, has yet reached.

The board heard complaints from a familiar set of people, who have written letters to the Enterprise editor, that it was not including taxpayers by disallowing public comment during some of its meetings and limiting committee membership to the town board.

As a sign of how much emphasis residents have placed on the town board’s openness, councilmembers’ words were amplified at recent meetings through a new set of speakers and resident Dianne Sefcik had a small video camera trained on the board.

Beginning planning with Delaware Engineering, the same firm that had drafted the multi-million-dollar plan to renovate Town Hall and build a new highway garage, the committee met on Jan. 28 and reviewed an array of options, where town attorney Aline Galgay noted the board could avoid the permissive referendum that toppled its initial proposal with short-term financing, among other borrowing options.

The possible proposals outlined include spreading the project over five, three, and two years, with borrowing occurring in smaller increments, or in longer five-, 10-, 15-, 20-, or 30-year periods subject to permissive referendums.

Budget estimates range from $3.23 million for five years of construction to $2.68 for two years of construction. As contracts and time multiply over a phased project, so does the cost.

The initial project proposal, to replace the highway garage and renovate the town hall to accommodate the State Police troopers and the town court, was projected to cost up to $2.75 million and to cost the average property owner about $100 a year. But voters petitioned to force a referendum, claiming the board had met illegally and avoided public input in haste, and then soundly rejected the proposal. Since then, an emergency repair costing $12,000 was made to patch the leaking roof over the highway garage, which shares space with the town court and police offices.

Purchasing the town hall, which used to be a school, was controversial, too. A vote forced by permissive referendum favored the purchase.

The February meeting marked Councilwoman Amie Burnside’s first month, having been voted in on a slate of candidates opposing the referendum and calling for government transparency.

“I myself have no problem with someone to come on to the board,” said Burnside, responding to Sefcik’s questioning board members on why residents were not part of the committee. Asked how that could be accomplished, Burnside said she would have to give it thought.

“I feel that we’re doing a good enough job,” said Councilman Theodore Lounsbury. “We’re trying to run everything through the gauntlet. We understand the first time it was rammed right through.”

Councilman William Bichteman said the committee members were the same as the town board so that councilmembers would have “first-hand knowledge of parts of construction and financing.” He said he is uniquely qualified, having owned a construction company for 30 years, to serve on the committee.

“It seems that no one wants to acknowledge the fact that, in order to repair this building, it’s going to cost money,” Bichteman said at the Feb. 2 meeting. “It’s going to cost a lot of money.”