Repairs to the 5-year-old police and fire station continued yesterday as contractors worked to fine tune the newly renovated and upgraded heating and ventilation system.
Provided the system works properly, Fire Chief Mike Howard said building repairs are getting closer to being completed, and potentially, the only outstanding major issues remaining are the leaky windows.
The station was never properly completed, which led to the town firing the general contractor in 2003 and subsequently losing an arbitration case against the company. The building is still without a permanent occupancy permit, which prompted selectmen two years ago to form a special committee to determine what still needs to be done to the building.
As a result of committee recommendations, Town Meeting in 2006 approved $310,000 to fix a variety of outstanding issues, including the faulty heating and ventilation system.
An additional $100,000 was approved last year to replace the garage bay doors among other repairs.
Meanwhile, the town committee helping to oversee the building repairs has been studying the window issue over the past year and is trying to pinpoint the problem and recommend a solution. But that report will not come in time for this Town Meeting, which continues tonight, 7:30 p.m. at the Coakley Middle School.
Selectman Bill Plasko said yesterday he's hoping to get a final report on the windows leaking from consultants in the near future.
"We have a couple of different ideas about it, but this is something where we want to be sure - we don't want to be guessing," said Plasko. "We want to be very confident, so we're doing a little more examination."
But Plasko did acknowledge the list of building woes is shrinking rapidly, and the windows may be the last remaining issue, provided a few other things work out in the town's favor.
For instance, a leaking rear wall problem could be fixed with existing money, provided bids are low enough.
Another issue - a garage bay floor that is crumbling in spots - is still a problem, but one that might have a relatively cheap solution.
Officials have tried patching a portion of the bay floor to see if it will work, thereby alleviating the need for more extensive repairs or even an entire replacement.
Howard said the experiment looks promising.
"We have test-patched bay four and it looks nice," said Howard. "Hopefully it will hold up."
Plasko said a total replacement of the floor could cost an estimated $146,000.
The other good news, said Plasko, is the floor's crumbling spots do not appear to be expanding.
"The spots that are bad are getting worse, but from what I can see, the problem is not spreading," said Plasko.
Plasko said he hopes to have final recommendations for the windows and any other outstanding issues by the next Town Meeting, possibly in the fall.
Daily News staff writer Brian Falla can be reached at 781-433-8339 or bfalla@cnc.com.
