PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — The Second Street structure that’s been home to City Hall for decades — and originally built as the A.R. Gould Memorial Hospital — has a new owner, following the city council’s split vote of 4-3 Monday night.
The action authorized City Manager Jim Bennett to sign a purchase and sales agreement with C&N Rentals, with the $150,000 sale being final within 90 days.
Voting in favor of the sale were council chairwoman Emily Smith and councilors Pete Hallowell, Leigh Smith and Randy Smith. Opposing the sale were council vice chairman Mike Chasse and councilors Dick Engels and Craig Green.
Under consideration Monday was whether to sell the aging building and relocate, or pay for extensive repairs and stay.
An independent analysis, requested by the city, estimated it would cost more than $1.2 million to bring the Second Street building up to code, including installing fire suppression systems, upgrading stairwells to meet fire safety guidelines, and upgrading heating and electrical systems.
While the building is nearly 100 years old, “its foundation is as good today as ever it was. I don’t think anything in the [Harriman] report is insurmountable … My initial reaction to all of this, day one until now, is we need to break the cycle of ‘tear down and throw away’ in Presque Isle,” Green said.
Hallowell said it would “be expensive to get up to a state we can be proud of. We can put money into this building and turn our backs on the offer to sell, but then we’d have money tied up in a building that’s not efficient and has too many hallways.”
Hallowell acknowledged that Presque Isle residents get emotional about the building.
“City Hall is the moral fabric of the community. I’m confident we have a very legitimate business family who’ll do good things with it,” said Hallowell, who’s been working for the past few years to reduce the city’s assets and thus reduce maintenance costs, as a way to cut the municipality’s annual budget needs.
Engels said he’d vote the way he had before, in opposition to the sale and two lease options that had been presented for the relocation.
“We’ll get $150,000 from the sale [and it will] cost about $285,000 to move into another building and build the council chamber … one lease is $10 million, with the other $15 million,” he said. “One will be on the westerly bypass, with trucks routed from Ashland. I don’t think that’s a really good location. The other is a 50-year-old strip mall. My solution would be to build onto the community center. But we can’t do that, so our only option is to stay here and make this presentable.”
Chasse agreed with Engels, noting that “both [lease] options are generous proposals but not the right ones for us.”
“You’re now seeing struggles at the mall; it’s important to focus on downtown. Moving away from [downtown] opposes what we’re trying to do. We discussed leasing 10-15 years, but after those years, you own nothing. Putting that [money] into City Hall, we’d have a building worth a lot of money,” Chasse said.
City Manager Bennett discussed some of the minimum expenditures that would be needed to stay on Second Street.
“To stay, you’re looking at $400,000 to $500,000 over four or five years. I don’t think we can do it in stages. I hope I’m wrong, but I’d be doing a disservice if I don’t tell you, if you choose to stay here, you’re looking at upwards of $500,000,” Bennett said.
Randy Smith said part of the reason to consider selling and moving elsewhere was to “not spend $1.2 million, when money needs to be spent on the community center.”
“I love this building. I was born in this room [council chambers], I’d keep this regardless of the cost … but don’t know how to pay for it,” he said.
Prior to the vote, councilors opened the floor for public comment, with residents Carol and Mike MacPherson, Bud Wilson and Leo Freeman expressing concern and sharing their frustration over the proposed sale and subsequent relocation of City Hall.
Carol MacPherson said “nothing dictates all things need to be accomplished now” and “without lease payments, there should be money to accomplish improvements and the city still owns the building.”
She said she was skeptical of the the Harriman report’s repair estimates — ”We should not let these figures lead us to abandoning this building.”
Mike MacPherson laid out a detailed breakdown of costs to maintain the building versus the expense of relocating.
“I heard you say your decision is based on numbers. I’ve long believed the city shouldn’t be leasing property; whatever we do, the city needs to own the property it’s in,” he said, providing councilors with comparisons of how money spent on leasing could be applied to upgrades on a building the city already owns, creating, in effect, a new, more modern facility. “I request and hope you’ll be voting ‘no’ and to stay and fix what you’ve got and make the city proud of you.”
Amy Collins told councilors how she and her brother, Gary Nelson, of C&N Rentals were approached by the realtor, Jim Dyer, to buy the building. She told councilors that the Harriman report missed the need to upgrade insulation in the structure to bring it up to code. She added that it wasn’t their plan to destroy an historic landmark.
“We aren’t planning to come in and totally destroy this building but rather do the upgrades needed. You need to make a decision,” she said, adding that now was their “down time” when crews were most available to work on projects like this.
Wilson expressed concern over the city’s continued disposal of older facilities, with expenditures continually rising.
“You’re still paying on the public safety building. [The council has] decided to tear down the indoor and outdoor pools. It’s become a priority to get a new pool and rec. center up and going, so you have a debt load there,” he said.
But Wilson added that he was in favor of keeping the existing City Hall. He too questioned the Harriman report’s estimated costs for bringing the building up to code. He referred specifically to the lever handled hardware proposed at $350 for each of 58 doors.
“If I had a manual and a couple days, I think I could come up with something a lot more conservative,” Wilson said. “I hope you vote to keep this building.”
Freeman’s request was simple: “Remove that for sale sign from in front of the building and I want it gone by morning.”
Leigh Smith said the governor was “beating the drum on revenue sharing and cutting again.”
“I think the only answer we can really look at ourselves and down the line is to say ‘Can we afford the assets we have, what’s next and what’s the biggest draw on our money, and can we afford it?’ This doesn’t mean it’s forever; this might be a temporary solution until we find the next best solution. The market might change. My feeling is it’s time to move out of this building and get into something more efficient,” he said.
Emily Smith made the motion to sell, seconded by Randy Smith, with the measure narrowly passing.