Many of the deficiencies in the building, which is home to several performing arts groups, have been fixed. However, two costly requirements remain.
AUBURN – The show will go on at the Great Falls School, despite a midsummer state fire inspection that turned up 74 fire code violations. The investigation did force the city to close a basement level dressing room, however, and requires the installation of a smoke alarm and sprinkler system in the building.
Most of the violations were minor, said Auburn’s Community Relations Manager, Laurie Smith. They included reminders to keep fire doors closed and not to use extension cords.
“The major safety feature that we want to address is installing a sprinkler system throughout the entire building. There is no question that it will be costly, but we are well aware of that need and have taken that into consideration in planning the renovations,” said City Manager Pat Finnigan. “In the meantime, however, the building does have a complete fire alarm system.”
Finnigan also said that most of the deficiencies “have been addressed already, and the remainder are in process of being corrected or providing a timeline for addressing them.” She said it’s important to note that most of the violations “were repetitions of the same type of issues that existed in several areas of the building.”
“This is an old building,” Smith said. “It was never meant to be used the way it’s been used, so there were bound to be some areas that needed to be upgraded.”
The city took over the 53,000-square-foot building from the School Department in 1997. Nine groups call the building home: Community Little Theatre, the Edward Little Drama Club, the Linda Camire School of Dance, the Franco-American Genealogical Society, Literacy Volunteers of Lewiston-Auburn, Auburn Adult Education, the L/A Arts Steel Drum Band, Susan Krongold violin instruction and Shareware.
Finnigan praised Smith for her work in cultivating “an eclectic arts community” in this building. “There is a pent-up demand for space to conduct arts and theater classes at the high school and college levels, as well as places to perform and create arts. The building fills an important void and makes that possible.”
Performing arts proposal
Last year, L/A Excels studied turning the old school into a formal performing arts center. A renovated Great Falls School could include space for theater, dance, music and studios available to community members for rent and for classes, according to the L/A Excels report. No decision has been made on that proposal.
Finnigan, who chairs L/A Excels, said, “We all would love to have a fully renovated arts and cultural center at Great Falls, but we have been very realistic with the groups using the building; that level of funding doesn’t happen overnight. We are pursuing myriad funding options, but we are very realistic with arts groups. Whether it is funding building improvements or the annual operating costs, it will be a constant struggle for arts organizations.”
State fire marshals inspected the building June 3 and released the results to the city on July 29. Nelson Collins, supervisor of licensing and inspections for the Fire Marshal’s Office, said not all of the items need to be addressed immediately.
“Some items, we communicated that they needed to deal with right away,” he said. “Others, their plans are on hold until they can get some more information.”
The inspection noted several emergency exits were unlit or did not have illuminated exit signs. Some fire doors were partially blocked, while others were propped open with wooden wedges or rocks. Inspectors also found electrical system problems, such as open junction boxes, spliced and exposed wires, and uncovered outlets and breaker panels.
Finnigan said that many of the items cited by the inspector were not costly. Those were “things that people need to take seriously and pay attention to on an ongoing basis, such as keeping hallways and exits free from clutter/obstructions (i.e. store materials in the proper, safe area), not using extension cords, (and) replacing bulbs in exit lights, etc.”
The state also asked that a basement-level dressing room be closed until a second exit could be added. Smith said that dressing room has been closed until further notice.
The cost of sprinklers
Community Little Theatre Executive Director John Blanchette said actors did have to find an alternative place to dress for the recent production of “Singing in the Rain.”
“We set up some tables in the gymnasium,” Blanchette said. “It wasn’t perfect, but we did the best we could with what we had.”
A requirement to install a smoke alarm and sprinkler system in the entire building is another issue, Smith said.
“It never has had anything like that, and installing one will be very expensive,” Smith said. “First, we need to install the sprinklers, then get water to the building. We know it will be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
Smith said the building has a pull alarm system and many fire extinguishers, and city employees trained occupants on fire extinguisher use Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the city is looking at engineering firms to create a work plan.
But Smith said the city hopes to time the project to match any performing arts center work.
“We don’t want to have money invested on these systems only to have to turn around and tear them out when we come up with something else,” Smith said. “We know that would be money wasted. We don’t have a design for a new system, so we don’t know how everything will be used in the future.”
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