By Marianne Sullivan, Courier Senior Staff
Writer:
ESSEX:
In small steps over
the past year or more, offices within the Town Hall have been undergoing
renovations. Tile and wood floors have replaced rotting and threadbare
carpeting. Offices have been moved. A new hallway and two newly configured
meeting rooms have been created on the second floor. Soon, residents will
notice two more changes.
Last week, with
First Selectman Philip Miller on vacation, workers were in his office tearing
up the aging carpet in preparation for installing new wood floors. The new
floors will extend to the offices immediately outside the first selectman’s.
The $9,000 project was included in last year’s budget but could not be scheduled
until now, Cindy Varricchio, the selectmen’s administrative assistant, said.
The Town Hall is a
former school converted decades ago to its present use. Over the last year to
18 months, as workers have pulled up carpeting to install new flooring or
removed walls to create new spaces, they have repeatedly found rotting, unsafe
floor areas beneath the layers of old carpet and linoleum.
“As they began to
rip up the carpet in the first selectman’s office, they found holes in the
floor,” Varricchio said. As earlier occupants of the office moved desks and
workspaces around to suit their preferences, holes where drilled in the floor
to accommodate new and additional wiring. Varricchio shook her head. Years of
drilling, reconfiguring of workspaces, and repeated recarpeting have ruined the
floor.
By next week
visitors to the first selectman’s office will find Varrichhio back at her desk
outside Miller’s office–she temporarily relocated down the hall during the
renovation–and new maple floors throughout the selectman’s general office area.
Perhaps more
apparent than any changes in the first selectman’s office will be the
replacement of the doors that lead from the Town Hall parking area behind the
building into the bottom floor. The Board of Selectmen has asked the Board of
Finance to approve an expenditure not to exceed $45,000 to replace that
entrance door and accomplish additional fire code upgrades.
If approved, the
present exterior door will be removed and replaced with a double door and wall
system that will allow full, handicapped accessibility and meet all new fire
codes. This bottom floor entrance is the one used to access the auditorium,
which is used frequently by outside community groups. In addition, some minor
work will be done around the elevator areas on each of the buildings three
floors. This upgrade is also being made to meet fire codes.