Keough condemned Brimfield Town Hall

Last Friday, Jack Keough, the building inspector condemned the Brimfield Town Hall and declared it in danger of collapsing. The post and beam structure that was built in 1878 not only has water damage in form of rotted beams, the structure also has other structural problems.

The Bent, a transverse beam of the roof structure that runs the entire length of the town hall, is completely rotted at the ends and had dropped nearly 6 inches according to Keough. The damage was hidden underneath floor boards and was only discovered last Friday. The attic floor that was replaced about 30 years ago was subject to additional stress due to “weight that shouldn‘t have been there.” The attic space was used to store all kinds of stuff for lack of other more suitable storage space.

Jack Keough would not even allow town officials and members of the different boards to access the town hall at their own risk to get needed documents, computers and other urgently needed equipment.

At the emergency meeting in the Town Hall Annex this morning at 10, Jack Keough informed selectboard vice chair Stephen R. Fleshman, executive secretary Carol M. DelNegro, Chief of Police Charles T. Kuss, town clerk Pamela E. Beall, and others, of the situation, presenting photographs to document the damage. Stephen Fleshman is an architect by profession and brought special knowledge to the meeting. He is one of the directors of the American Institute of Architects for the chapter of Central Massachusetts and has also a listing on the webpage of the Boston Society of Architects.

During the 72 minute meeting the town officials in attendance also considered possible temporary quarters to move to, and also where to hold upcoming meetings too large to accommodate inside the Town Hall Annex that is just west of the Town Hall. Chief of Police Charles Kuss voiced his concern not to lose sight of the bigger picture and sees the situation as an opportunity to get his department out of the raggedness of the basement location. Chief Kuss will make some phone calls to look into the possibility of a trailer to house his department; town clerk Pamela Beall is considered taking refuge in a vacant apartment in the Colonial Park Apartment complex. Pamela Beall sees the Hitchcock Academy as a possible location for the town caucus, and the Saint Christopher Parish Church at 16 Sturbridge Rd. in Brimfield as a possible locale for the town elections. Jack Keough informed Pamela Beall that he could not allow her to set camp in a residential district and to town business.

The next meeting to update involved officials on the issue and discuss further actions to remedy the situation will take place Monday night at the Town Hall Annex.

I hope Brimfield will preserve and restore its beautiful town hall instead of tearing it down. The history of these splendid buildings is priceless. Town officials also discussed moving the painting of George Washington that decorates the great room. Even so the painting is only a poor copy by a local artist, it is still a part of Brimfield‘s history. While monumental in scale it is probably not worth as much as its frame says Pamela Beall.

However a total restoration of the town hall will be a costly undertaking. Neighboring towns face the same situation. North Brookfield‘s town hall restoration is estimated to cost at least $3,000,000, and Southbridge just voted on February 24, 2009, in favor of restoring their magnificent town hall at an additional cost of $1,580,000 to the already authorized $4.300.000.

Peter Frei