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captions, clockwise from top left:
Trusses. Linda Lemmon photos.
Front entry waits for staircase
Above: Venting, waiting. Right: Massive switchgear box.
Temporary window, sill and brickwork
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM — Municipal Complex committee members and town officials seemed pleased with the progress on the project during a walkthrough last week.
The project is on time and under budget. Thus far, the anticipated opening is August.
Town Administrator Elaine Sistare said the reason the project is under budget is that most of the budget set aside for possible soil cleanup and replacement were not needed. The town had put aside “six figures,” she said, and very little was actually needed. The budget was completed before the soil was tested around the 4-acre site. Formerly, the property was home to the Putnam Trade School and Putnam High School and was hit hard by the Flood of 1955.
Thomas Sheard, Downes Construction Company LLC superintendent, said the brickwork is moving along very quickly on the three sides of the building. Masons started Jan. 4 and by Jan. 7, tour time, the bricks were higher on the walls than a committee member could reach, arms upstretched.
The tour through the entire building showed metal studs everywhere, the installation of major electrical equipment, the vault and much more. The front entrance of the complex is still waiting for its elegant stairway but the two plain stairways, one at each end of the building, are already in and being used.
The expansive library section, with its wing-like roof offers all the room the library needs, according to library director Priscilla Colwell. A huge adult section is balanced by a large children’s section. There are teen rooms, kids’ rooms and glass everywhere. The children’s library “won’t have to take her stuff out of the one room we have now when she leaves for the day. She’ll have her own room.”
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