Federal bailout for Millville?
Mass. Congressman says ‘something needs to be done’ to provide town office space
MILLVILLE – The inconvenience caused by the closure of the Longfellow Municipal Center, Congressman Jim McGovern said, is like a kidney stone: it will be painful for a little while, but it will pass.
He sat down with several town employees in their makeshift office, the garage attached to the police station, on Thursday afternoon to listen to their plight.
“I’m sorry you guys are going through this,” he told them. “This is not the way anybody should have to work, especially for the town, and clearly something needs to be done.”
After hearing the latest developments from Town Administrator Jennifer Callahan and Board of Selectmen Chair Joe Rapoza, the representative of Massachusetts’ 2nd congressional district had a question: “How can we help?”
“We were hoping you’d say that!” Town Clerk Diane Lockwood responded.
Town employees have not been in the Longfellow Municipal Center since July 24, when the building was deemed unsafe for occupancy. They have instead been working out of the booking area and offices in the police station, and out of the attached garage.
McGovern said he would be happy to call Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Jay Ash, if Callahan were to provide him with a brief summary of what to ask.
He pledged to work with the offices of Rep. Kevin Kuros and Sen. Ryan Fattman to make sure everyone is “singing the same tune.” Financially speaking, he suggested getting together “any possible department or agency that
could in any way remotely maybe be able to offer something here.”
McGovern also questioned if the town could get a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant, considering Millville has a small enough population to qualify as a rural area.
The town is looking at the American Legion Hall on Main Street as a temporary solution – but for at least the next 36 months – and Rapoza said the preliminary assessment for necessary upgrades to the post is probably in the $150,000 to $180,000 range.
And then there’s the possible construction of a new building.
“It could be in the millions of dollars, and you can’t get that money from here,” McGovern said to a chorus of “No!” coupled with laughter.
“This is no different than a tornado coming in and ruining a building that’s a municipal building,” Callahan said.
Last week, the engineering firm Simpson Gumpertz & Heger released an analysis confirming the building is structurally unsafe.
The roof is sagging, some walls are bowing outwards, the original timber connections have failed, there is fire damage to roof rafters and mold is a concern.
The portion of the building from the 1860s is timber construction and the roofs were not meant to be insulated but later were, Rapoza said. The insulation traps the heat, keeping snow from melting off the roof.
“This has reached the level of kind of a catastrophe,” McGovern said. “I love garages, but you have to work here, registering people to vote.”
Just in the hour before and during McGovern’s visit, a few residents filtered in and out to register to vote. Employees with roles that involve more direct interaction with the public are stationed in the garage instead of the police station, and that includes the town clerk.
“It’s like a drive-thru town clerk’s service,” Town Administrator Jennifer Callahan said of the way some people drive right up to the garage.
The setup is in part because of Callahan’s desire to not have staff and residents playing hopscotch across town.
“There were alternatives of trying to split people up, and as an administrator, I thought there was value in trying to build the team,” Callahan said.
But as the weather cools, the garage will become an even less desirable space to work.
On chillier days, building and highway department secretary Kristina Herrick said, the staff in the garage has already been wearing mittens and jackets. She also noted that people frequently get logged off their computers because of a bad connection, and that fuses blow if they try to turn space heaters on.
“This clearly is not sustainable. That’s an understatement,” McGovern said. “So you need to figure out how to rebuild, and obviously that’s urgent.”
After considering churches, trailers, Chestnut Hill Community Center and the Millville Senior Center, the Municipal Center Building Relocation Committee recommended a lease agreement with the American Legion Hall for use as a temporary facility.
The Board of Selectmen voted to enter into a lease agreement with the Legion, and the licensing agreement is on the agenda for Monday night’s Board of Selectmen meeting, to be held at 7 p.m. The lease agreement needs to be approved in a special town meeting, which is scheduled for Nov. 3.
“We have what I call the contingency for the contingency, but none of the contingencies are great,” Callahan said.
After meeting with town employees in the garage, McGovern went with Callahan and Rapoza to tour the Legion Post, which is not currently being utilized.
“It definitely looks like an old legion hall,” Callahan said. “We don’t want it to look like that when the staff go into it.”
Fortunately for them, students from Blackstone Valley Regional Vocational Technical High School are donating their time to help out.
Seniors from the painting and design technologies program were on hand to show their rendering of what the hall will look like when its walls are painted a more appealing color than the current battleship grey. They picked colors that match office partition walls piled up in an adjacent room.