Officials have moved into renovated Town Hall
The result of all the work is a bigger, brighter and safer office. And townspeople are adjusting.
MECHANIC FALLS – Though more than $740,000 has been spent to renovate the Town Hall – replacing many of the building’s systems and erecting new walls – it’s the fresh paint that is perhaps the most striking.
The paint, a sky blue, replaces the dour wooden paneling that once covered the walls of the former schoolhouse.
“We feel like we’ve come up from a subterranean place,” said Town Manager Dana Lee. “We’ve come into the light.”
The Town Hall reopened on March 8, ending 10 months of doing the town’s work in a modular office on the old hall’s front lawn.
Since last May, contractors had been rebuilding the hall’s utilities: installing a new furnace, new plumbing, sprinklers, fire alarms, a stairwell and a new elevator. The police department, which had been located on the first floor, was moved upstairs beside the adult education office.
Meanwhile, the town administration has spread out across the first floor, giving added space to the town clerk, the tax collector, planning and bookkeeping.
The move, for which the offices were closed on March 4 and 5, went smoothly, said Lee. Town workers lent their backs to the cause.
“They’ve gotten dirty and lugged boxes,” Lee said. “They’ve been great.” They even helped furnish their offices.
A family member of a town worker worked out a deal with a Lewiston insurance company, which donated to the Mechanic Falls office some of its surplus office furniture.
The result of all the work is a bigger, brighter and safer office. And townspeople are adjusting.
People have already questioned the use of buzzers and glass windows to limit access to much of the building. It’s been needed for a while, Lee said.
Like towns such as Lewiston, Auburn and Lisbon, people here cannot merely walk through the building unless someone inside unlocks a door.
It keeps town workers safer, both from disgruntled taxpayers and people who might inadvertently pass on an illness.
“We hope people don’t find it impersonal,” Lee said.
Meanwhile, the building remains somewhat unfinished.
On Friday, the sound of a power saw could be heard coming from the basement gymnasium, where contractors had installed plenty of the building-wide systems in side rooms. As they worked there during the winter, they also let in some moisture, which soaked into the gym floor and warped some of the wood.
Town leaders plan to meet with the contractor, H.E. Callahan of Auburn, on Thursday to discuss repairs to the floor.
All of the work is scheduled to be done by the end of March. An open house will likely be held in May.
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