Frustration Building Over Town Hall Basement Flooding

As Bill Casbarra brought a canoe into Tuesday’s selectmen meeting, most were naturally confused as to why the object was placed in the Gala Meeting Room. The answer would soon be delivered when Casbarra expressed his frustration with the flooding in the basement of town hall.

“I brought that in to make a point. That was floating downstairs in our town hall basement,” Casbarra said.

Earlier in the day, heavy rain flooded the basement of town hall, forcing Casbarra and interim town manager Bob Cutler to spend time removing the water.

Departments affected by the flooding included conservation, planning, and human resources. 

The flooding is nothing new to the basement which is now dealing with a situation according to Casbarra that is getting consistently worse.

“What happens is we get floods and they get worse and worse,” Casbarra said.

Cutler also commented that the basement is flooded frequently, almost every other month.

“What he (Casbarra) told you was no exaggeration. There were at least six of us down there for two hours this morning,” Cutler said.

Flooding isn’t the only problem at town hall. Mold, dust containing lead and gunpowder from when the police station was in the basement, the lack of a sprinkler system, and leaks in the ceilings are just a few of the problems plaguing the building build in 1963.

With efforts to move or build a town hall stalling over the years, Casbarra told the board that it’s time for some progress on a building that is in need of renovation or removal.

“It’s at the point where I could say you have 30 days to vacate the premises,” Casbarra told the selectmen.

In his chairman’s update, Mark Sullivan agreed with Casbarra’s view that it’s time to do something about the condition of town hall.

Sullivan has asked Cutler to try to find real estate to rent until the town has the funds to buy property for a new town hall or renovate the current one.

“It is time to make a move even if we have to relocate,” Sullivan said.

Finance Director Randy Scollins added that he believed that one of the six plans shown over 2.5 years could have worked if there was a bigger initiative to push the project forward.

“This project still could have gone forward if the board showed the leadership and said this is a priority. This can happen,” Scollins said.

Proposals for town hall have included building a new town hall where the current one sits, buying the post office on Wall Street, and renovating the current building.

At last year’s special town meeting, voters took no action on an article to pay $500,000 for the design of a new town hall at the recommendation of the selectmen and the advisory committee due to the uncertainty of obtaining the $9 million to construct the building. 

The proposal was also rejected at the 2011 special town meeting.

The selectmen will revisit the issue in late August.