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caption, page 1:
Letting Light In
Clockwise from upper left: The library with most of its two-story glass wall in. On the other side of that glass are the undulating wood ceiling panels with lighting. The brickwork of the library and one of the circle lights in the children's library inside. The arcade portion of the Municipal Complex and the library to the left. The front entrance with the building committee and town officials out front. Linda Lemmon photos.
caption, page 2:
Site Work
Above: Site work is being done for the 25-foot by 6-foot sign at the corner of Woodstock Avenue and School Street. Right: Two more flag poles are going to be installed. There will also be a two-foot tall brick wall there. Linda Lemmon photos.
Municipal Complex in the home stretch
‘Let there be light’
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
Artificial. Natural. The new Municipal Complex, closed in for so long — is bathed in light.
First it was a “cocoon” of plastic in the winter/spring that kept the building encased in heat – both for the masons doing their work outside and for workers inside. When the cocoon finally came down it was replaced with a good bit of plywood because of nagging problems with scratched windows delivered and sent back. But now, with a very few exceptions, all the windows and the huge glass walls are bringing glorious light into the complex.
One panel of the library’s two-story glass wall is waiting for replacement and a few glass panels in the corner of the children’s section of the library are also waiting. Also due in is the glass that will grace the front foyer grand staircase.
On the artificial side, most of the hallway, bathroom, library and office lighting is in and all of is it bright and modern. Skinny but bright lights for bars or squares on the ceilings. In the children’s library section, the lights are playful circles. Next to them on the ceiling are solid blue circles that act as sound absorption.
In the adult section of the library, on the other side of the two-story glass wall, five panels of wood with lights wave across the ceiling.
Librarian Priscilla Colwell said the children’s section will also include a large mural of “stylized trees.” Chartreuse hexagon shaped carpet panels are waiting to go down on the floor in the children’s library section.
Ed Ladd, of Downes Construction Company, said the project is still on time — they’re shooting for an Aug. 19 “turnover date” to the town. “It won’t necessarily be open to the public then” on Aug. 19. The challenge is two words, “in transit” for materials. “We can’t predict the future,” he said.
Elaine Sistare, town administrator, said the furniture is due to be delivered the beginning of August. She said a good 90 percent of the furniture in the complex is new. Some of the library furniture is current library furniture that is being restored/refinished.
Sistare said the project is still under budget and there are “no financial concerns.”
The charcoal gray metal panels that will soar around the two-story main entrance outside are due in on Aug. 12, Ladd said. Inside ash panels stained in a honey tone will run along the top of the walls in the main entrance and then go up the grand staircase, tying it all together. The same color wood makes up most of the window frames throughout the complex.
Outside Ladd said that paving for the entrance/exit on the School Street side will be done soon — when less large equipment will be around to damage the asphalt. Grass seed will be one of the last things go to in.
Two site work projects are going on in the “front yard.” The site work at the Providence Street and School Street intersection is for the 25 by 6 foot sign. It will have some brickwork at the base. Sistare said it will not be an LED moving sign as the town thought that would be too distracting at an intersection.
Just in front of the main entrance, site work is being done to add two more flagpoles, for a total of three. That will have a 2-foot high brick wall around it. The refurbishing of the town’s original bell is finished and the bell will be just inside the main entrance. That bell was originally in the current Town Hall and was moved to Rotary Park for the sesquicentennial in 2005.
Ladd told the building committee members on the tour July 1 that by the next walkthrough (in August) “you’ll have keys and we’ll be working on a punch list.”
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