NEW IPSWICH — The Select Board has agreed to allow the town’s Building Committee to spend up to $5,000 on three different floor plans for renovating the old police station behind the town offices, even though one floor plan option has never been seen, let alone discussed in public.

Building Committee member Jim Schultz said there was a third option to consider, in addition to one that was developed by the Building Committee and another that Police Chief Garrett Chamberlain developed with input from Fire Chief David Leel and Emergency Management Director Jim Hicks.

But Schultz would not give any details of that third plan.

“Are we considering alternative plans? Options A, B, and C?” asked Selectman Bentti Hoiska after Schultz requested the $5,000 during Tuesday night’s Select Board meeting.

“What are you doing on them?” Selectman George Lawrence asked Schultz.

“None of your business,” replied Schultz, who did not offer any details about a third plan.

He said the money would be spent for professional drawings to be created for all three plans. A fourth drawing would also be created that would show an engineering design for the building’s HVAC system.

Initially, Schultz asked the Select Board if the $5,000 could come from warrant article funding that voters approved in March, which allowed the town spend up to $25,000 to remove the toxic mold from Building #2. It cost the town $19,000 to remove the mold.

“It wouldn’t be legal to do that,” said Marie Knowlton, town administrator. She said that because the warrant article only asks voters to approve up to $25,000 “to be used to eliminate the mold from Building #2 in the Town Office Complex.” As a result, the Building Committee cannot spend the remaining money on remediation services such professional drawings of the three floor plan designs.

“The way it was explained at the first meeting,” said Schultz, “when that came up was that it was more money than the mold remediation would be and the rest of it would be for the building. In this case, we need air movement in there.”

Chamberlain told those in attendance that spending the town’s money on three professional floor plans is wasteful.

“Wouldn’t it make more sense to get one laid out that we liked instead of spending the money to draft three perfect, beautiful plans. We know two of them will go out in the trash,” he said.

Despite Chamberlain’s protest, the Select Board approved Schultz’s request for $5,000, with the money to come from the Building Capital Reserve account.

On Wednesday, Chamberlain voiced his displeasure over the Select Board’s decision.

“Why are we going to spend an unknown amount of money on an unknown contractor to draw a floor plan that nobody has agreed is viable?” said Chamberlain. “It’s time for the Building Committee to go by the wayside and for the Selectmen to work with the department heads to work together to develop the best plan because this current process is just smoke and mirrors.”