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NORTHBRIDGE, Mass. – Northbridge residents should not be alarmed by the boarded-up windows at Memorial Town Hall on Main Street. It just means restoration of the historic building’s windows has begun.
Memorial Town Hall, circa 1875, is on the State Register of Historic Places.
Voters approved $635,000 for the project, which includes restoring the windows as well as repairing and painting outside masonry and woodwork.
The contract to do the window restoration work was awarded last week to Campbell Construction, which submitted the low bid of $425,300.
Representatives of Campbell Construction met Monday with town officials, including Town Planner Gary Bechtholdt, Historic Commission Chairman Kenneth Warchol, and Building, Planning and Construction Committee member William Mello to discuss the work schedule.
Project manager John Hecker of McGinley Kalsow & Associates Inc. suggested the work be done in two phases, beginning with the unoccupied second floor.
Windows will be removed and taken off-site, where they will be repaired, stripped and painted. One window will be completed and installed in Town Hall as soon as possible so the public can see how the finished product looks.
The window glaze contains lead, so some asbestos abatement work will be done on site in an enclosed area. Although the window-removal process will cause some dust, no asbestos will be released, Hecker said.
Highway Superintendent Robert Van Meter suggested a meeting with town employees to emphasize the project's safeguards.
“It’s a really clean process,’’ said William Moore, project supervisor for Campbell Construction.
Each batch of windows will take eight to 10 weeks to complete. With the ongoing work, parking will be limited at Town Hall.
Much of the painting and masonry work is already done. Aniceto Inc. did masonry and flashing work for $63,340, and Fox Painting did the painting and carpentry work for $59,937.
A portion of the funding comes from a matching grant of $45,000 for the windows from the Massachusetts Preservation Projects Fund through the Massachusetts Historical Commission.
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