Temporary starting to feel permanent
Mayor to explore future of city offices once insurance claim is settled
It’s been three months since city employees reporting for work discovered that a pipe had burst in the City Hall Annex, soaking records in the tax assessor’s office and causing ceiling titles to crumble.
Mayor Scott Avedisian acted quickly. Even though many offices had not sustained damage, the building was closed to the public and, with the exception of the tax collector, moved to the former Greene School next to school administrative offices in the former Gorton Junior High School on Draper Avenue.
As the incident happened during the January tax payment period and many taxpayers prefer to make payments in person, the collector’s office was relocated in the basement of City Hall. Avedisian notes that everyone rallied and, making the best of a bad situation, carried on city business from makeshift offices crafted out of rental tables and chairs.
But now with furniture from the annex replacing rentals, what were “emergency” accommodations have taken on the appearance of becoming permanent. Rooms designed to hold 30 students have been subdivided into offices with shoulder-high dividers. There’s little privacy and members of the public, whether there to discuss the need to obtain a building permit, a proposed plan for a significant development or to learn what tax abatements they may be eligible to receive, find they are talking to a room full of people.
Seemingly another indication that what was designed to be temporary could become a long haul, tax collectors will be relocated to Greene next Monday. Partitions are in place and chairs for those waiting to pay their taxes line the corridor.
Questions have been raised as to whether the former school meets fire codes and is properly ADA compliant now that it is a public building. Last week, the administration sought bids to have at least one set of electrically operated handicapped accessible doors installed.
In an interview Monday, Avedisian referred to the offices at Greene as temporary. He would like to see municipal offices centralized, if not adjacent, to City Hall.
The Planning Department has analyzed the options, providing the mayor with an evaluation of vacant city buildings and Wickes and Randall Holden Schools that will become available after June. The report considers the space available in each of the buildings as well as the projected cost of converting them to offices. It also looks at renovating the existing annex or leveling it and rebuilding.
Of the proposals, other than rebuilding or building new offices next to City Hall, Avedisian points out the former Buttonwoods Community Center and the former Apponaug School, which are now law offices, could provide adequate space within proximity of City Hall.
But Avedisian isn’t prepared to talk about options until the city reaches an agreement with the Rhode Island Interlocal Risk Management Trust on insurance claims for damages at the annex. He said a private adjuster is working with the trust and that he expects a resolution shortly.
“Then the question is do we take the cash and do something different,” he said.
And while the council and the mayor have been at odds over most issues regarding finances, Council Finance Committee Chairman Ed Ladouceur agreed Monday that an insurance settlement is the first step.
“The priority right now is getting what we’re entitled to from the trust,” he said.
He doesn’t expect that to come easily, either.
“The insurance company is not your friend except when they’re taking your money,” he said.
As for where municipal offices should be located, Ladouceur said, “We’re at a crossroad right now. We need to put all the options on the table.”
He also feels there is some urgency to the situation as conditions at Greene function but are less than desirable.
“The longer we wait the more difficult it is to conduct business,” he said.
Asked about financing a renovated or new building, Ladouceur didn’t rule out the possibility of having a third party build the building and the city leasing back the space as Cranston did with its police station, using a portion of city reserves and even building a building large enough to rent out offices to help offset costs.
Preferring to wait for an insurance settlement, Avedisian didn’t get into a discussion of the possible funding sources. Apart from relocating the tax collector’s office, he said the administration is looking into fire code compliances now that most of the building is not be used for school purposes. West Bay Collaborative is using a portion of the former school.
He said that examination was prompted by a request for information filed by public activists Roger Durand and Stacia Huyler, who ran as a Republican for mayor in 2014 and for state representative in 2016.
Avedisian said the state fire marshal would be touring the former school this week.
