MILLINOCKET, Maine — Town leaders will be asked on Thursday to retroactively approve an allocation of about $1,850 toward repair of a poorly functioning town computer system. It’s the first of several expenditures Town Manager Peggy Daigle expects to seek to redress years of neglect and pinch-penny management of the town office, she said Monday.
A substantial portion of the more than $100,000 town workers have accrued from the sale of tax-acquired properties might be used to repair the roof, windows, telephone and computer systems over the summer, Daigle said.
“It gets to the point where if you put off doing things that are critical to your day-to-day operations long enough, you will have these problems,” Daigle said Monday.
Starting about two weeks ago with the computer and telephone system crashes, several town office building problems that were long-ignored or unrepaired became apparent, Daigle said. Since becoming the town’s manager last summer, Daigle said, she has been forced to confront many problems caused by a lack of appropriate oversight or a lack of funding stemming from the Katahdin region’s fiscal woes and its declines in population, state aid and tax dollars.
With the latest, “I was about ready to walk out the door,” Daigle said.
No total repair estimates have yet been done. A list Daigle compiled with state Facilities Engineer Curt LeFebvew and Jeff Henthorn, director of facilities for the state Judicial Branch, illustrates several problems with the the town office, which the state leases the second floor of as a superior court:
— A roof leak that is causing mold problems that need immediate fixing. The roof has sagged a few inches with rain and ice accumulations caused in part by a clogged drainage system.
“We will need to hire [to get] this work done and then will need to replace sheetrock affected with mold in the court break room and any other rooms and repaint,” Daigle wrote in a memo she plans to present to the Town Council on Thursday. “We will also need to clean the ventilation system to ensure mold is not a problem in the air throughout the building.”
— A fire alarm system that needs to be fixed or removed, several fire extinguishers that are not up to date and worn carpet in the courtroom area.
“We have informed the janitor and he will do a monthly inspection” of the extinguishers, Daigle wrote. “The Fire Department does the yearly inspection.”
— Windows with cracks, seals broken and loose glass panes and worn carpet in the courtroom area that needs to be replaced because it is a trip hazard.
“We need to get these replaced with screens so the windows can be opened during nice weather and closed tightly during cold weather,” Daigle wrote.
The computer system was fixed enough to keep working by Fire and Police Chief Steve Kenyon, a former IT manager, but still needs an offsite backup system and adequate firewalls. The phone system is so old that replacement parts are almost impossible to find, but it works intermittently, she said.
Given that state officials expect money from their lease to go toward the future repairs of the building, Daigle doubted that the state would pay for any portion of the building’s repairs, she said.
The council meets at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday.