TALK DIRTTY TO ME

Published in the Dec. 27, 2025 issue.

The new Mammoth Town Hall project is well within budget, Public Works Director Haislip Hayes assured the Mammoth Lakes Town Council last Wednesday night. Except for one thing. The initial funding plans neglected to include walls. 

Hayes requested $800,900 (which the council subsequently provided) from the town hall’s contingency fund, in order to acquire DIRTT (Doing it Right This Time) partition walls. 

“We’re actually pretty happy with that number,” Hayes said. “We were thinking it was going to be in the neighborhood of just over a million.” 

The item passed quickly in a 5-0 vote, with limited discussion. 

“This could’ve gone on the consent [agenda],” Hayes said, when he presented the request, “but I’d be remiss if I didn’t take the opportunity to provide you a chance to have questions about the city center.”

The DIRTT partition walls differ from traditional, permanent walls due to their flexibility, he explained. DIRTT walls can be removed and re-positioned in order to change the lay-out of the floor plan. Also, they’re cheaper. 

“We determined the cost of the partition walls was slightly cheaper than the hard surface walls,” Hayes said. 

“Are these walls solid partitions?” asked mayor pro tem Brent Truax. 

“Yes,” Hayes assured. “They have a variety of textures, depending on where they’re going, like white boards, magnetboards, fabric for sound insulation …”

The partition walls have already been installed at the Community Recreation Center, where the staff is satisfied with the product, Hayes added.

“I prefer to have something like this not on consent,” former mayor Chris Bubser said. “It reminds us of things we might forget about otherwise.” 

In July 2024, Mammoth’s council allocated $29.5 million to cover the construction contract and contingency for the town hall project. It also set aside $2 million for interior soft costs, like furniture. This money comes from taxpayer sources and town funds, like the Transit Occupancy Tax (TOT). 

“We’re recommending using the contingency so we’re staying within that original budget,” Hayes said at last week’s meeting. “We do believe we will have to go into the reserve funding … but we like the idea of reserving that capital for other projects in the future and really trying to work within that contingency.” 

The contingency fund is usually 10% of the total budget, Mayor Amanda Rice told the Sheet on Monday. Contingency funds are specific to the project at hand. If Rice’s calculations are correct, roughly $3 million were drawn from town funds for the contingency fund of the town hall. 

Rice said had some questions about the need to pull from the contingency fund to pay for the walls. 

“From the start, we knew we were going to have to pay for these dividers,” she said. “I don’t know exactly why this wasn’t initially covered. 

Construction projects always cost more than planned, Rice remarked. The town initially tried to receive a grant from the state to help with construction costs. Their goal was to build a disaster safe space attached to the town hall. But when the money from the state fell through, the town had to carry the financial burden of the project. 

“I think this project is more expensive than we initially thought it would be,” Rice said. “Which is why the contractor didn’t initially include the price of the walls.” 

 Rice explained while the project was expensive, she thought it was a financially sound decision. The town has been renting the space above the Vons pharmacy for 40 years. Sometimes, she said, it snows inside the hallways. During the “big year,” the town had to pay $300,000 in snow removal fees.

“I just don’t want to rent for another forty years,” she said. “Building costs just keep going up.”

The town hall is projected to open next fall.