Renovations began this week at the Windham Town Office annex to transform the former community center into office space for cramped town employees.
Abatement Professionals of Westbrook draped the halls in plastic and spent the week removing old asbestos tiles from the annex. In coming weeks, the company will tear down certain interior walls while others will be stripped back to their framing.
Other local companies have been contracted to install electrical, heating/central air conditioning and new exterior windows as the work continues, said Project Manager Ed Woodbury.
Complaints that the town offices were becoming too cramped prompted the annex renovation. But to keep the cost down, the town decided against hiring an architect to design specs for the renovation. Instead, a conceptual layout designed by Woodbury is guiding the project along.
“It’s a novel approach for the community to date,” Woodbury said. “I think everybody is pretty delighted with how we’ve dealt with it so far and I anticipate no problems.”
Woodbury says, weather permitting, the renovation should be completed in less than three months.
Once finished, the town manager, tax collector and town clerk’s offices will all be relocated to the annex, said Town Manager Anthony Plante. This will give the public and town staff “greater privacy” to conduct business, he said.
Other departments will then be able to expand into the vacant offices. The entrance to the annex will become the main Town Office entrance and a stairwell, with companion handicap lift, will allow access to the first floor of the current town offices.
Before the annex renovation began, HeadStart and the “Senior Meals” program, formerly located in the annex, had to find alternate locations to house their programs.
Last October, Senior Meals moved to Unity Gardens, a senior-housing complex on Route 115. HeadStart, a nursery school for underprivileged children, found its new home – the Field Allen School – only a few weeks ago and “just in the nick of time.”
“We’re getting ready to move in,” said Judy Reidt-Parker, director of Child and Family services for Peoples Regional Opportunity Program which runs HeadStart, “It looks like there will be no interruption in services, and we’re very happy about that.”
Windham Superintendent Sandy Prince says relocating HeadStart to the middle school is a “win/win situation” for the students.
“I think it’s a nice marriage of programs and I’m sure over time that we’ll have students go down there and become big brothers and big sisters for (the HeadStart children),” he said.
The town office and annex itself was once a public school and paint handprints still cover the annex walls from former kindergarten students.
Plante plans to have these wall pieces preserved for any Windham residents that attended kindergarten in the annex years ago.
With the renovations now underway, Plante hopes the new annex will create a more “pleasant and professional” atmosphere for the town offices.
“I’m glad the (cramping) issue was raised,” Plante said. “The renovations will go a long way to making the town offices better both for the staff and the public.”
In coming weeks, the Windham Town Hall Annex will undergo a full renovation for the relocation of town offices.Send questions/comments to the editors.
