New Municipal Building Draws

Town Leaders Thinking Long-Term

By: David Deschesne

One can’t walk down the street in Fort Fairfield these days without hearing someone speak about the new municipal building being proposed for this year. It’s not that the inhabitants in Fort Fairfield don’t want a new building - that one is sorely needed is a given - rather, where it is to be located and how much is to be spent seems to be the pivotal issue.

Currently, the plan is to build an addition on the Community Center (former armory) to house the Municipal offices and police department. The Fire Department relocated to that location a few years ago.

“I want to know why they don’t just use the Armstrong Engineering building on Presque Isle Street,” one concerned business owner said. “It’s a beautiful building, needs very little work, has a new roof

and would cost a third of what a new addition would.”

“We did consider the Armstrong building, as well as the V.F.W. building,” said Fort Fairfield Town Manager, Dan Foster. “What we found was that by taking either of those buildings, which are both located on very prime commercially-zoned real estate, for municipal use, we would essentially be taking tax generating properties off the tax rolls and out of the town’s tax stock. What money would be saved in the short term with decreased construction costs would then be lost over the long term in decreased tax receipts.”

The V.F.W. had considered turning their building over to the town due to decreased membership but no decision has been made to do so at this time.

“We also looked at Frank Thompson’s building at the east end of town. A year and a half ago he had it up for sale, but when we approached him he had already decided not to sell and to stay there and keep doing what he’s doing.”

Mr. Foster also described the benefits of the new heating system at the Community Center as another reason to locate there. “We have a brand new heating system at the Community Center which heats 32,000 square feet and is only operating at 60 percent of its capacity. We can easily add 3,000 or so feet on to that building, tap into its heating system and still be well within its operating range without the need for a separate heating system heating an entirely separate building.”

With the tax rolls and heating efficiency aside, some concerned inhabitants in Fort Fairfield showed up at a public hearing on the proposed building to voice some of their other concerns. “What about locating the police department with its potentially dangerous criminals so close to the Community Center where our children play?” asked one person. Foster responded, “The police station will be underneath the town office. There will be no interior access to either the town office or the community center through the police department.”

“I’ve been in law enforcement and have seen a few arrested people get away before,” said town councilman, Mitch Butler. “Every person I ever saw running away from the police was doing just that - running away from the police. They don’t normally run into an adjoining building.”

Another person was concerned about ventilation of the fumes generated by the police cars when started indoors - a problem currently being experienced with the fire department’s trucks being located directly below the gym. “The buildings will be joined, but not share the same air so that shouldn’t be a problem,” said Foster.

Currently, the town council is working with Armstrong Engineering to develop a solution to the fumes from the fire trucks with an existing air handler.

At the December town council meeting, the council voted to approve the location of the building at the Community Center. After the recent public hearing, the council held their regularly scheduled meeting for January where a bond for up to $1 million was approved. “We have to get the application in to the Maine Bond Bank by February 7,” said Foster.

The town then has until March 20 to finalize the amount it will need to borrow before the bond bank creates the money. “It could conceivably be less than a million,” said Foster. The bond will be in an amount that will complete the construction of the municipal building and also provide the needed money to finish the new municipal swimming pool this year. “The money has already been budgeted for the bond payments, so taxpayers will not see an increase in the mil rate of their taxes to pay for it.”

The current municipal building located on Main Street was added onto the Fire Station in 1978. It, along with the old Fire Station building, was recently purchased by T&G, LLC for future development.

The current municipal building had been ravaged by past floods, causing uncontrollable mold, a busted foundation and a deficient heating system.

“Whatever we do for a municipal building is not for today or tomorrow - it’s for a lifetime. We want to build a municipal building that 30 years from now the person in my position and the town council then won’t have to deal with the same problems we are today with our 30 year- old municipal building.”

The final costs for the new construction will be presented to the council at their March 2007 meeting.