By split vote, Council approves sale of City Hall
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 City Council’s split vote of 4-3 Monday night to authorize City Manager Jim Bennett to sign a purchase and sales agreement with C&N Rentals, with the agreement being final within 90 days. Voting in favor of the sale were Council Chair Emily Smith and Councilors Pete Hallowell, Leigh Smith and Randy Smith. Opposing the sale were Council Vice Chair Mike Chasse and Councilors Dick Engels and Craig Green. The purchase price was $150,000.
“It’s hard work to make a motion prior to discussion. I appreciate the hard work that went into this. It’s been a difficult mark to put a pencil to obviously. We have something kind of interesting before us — some very generous offers in the community for us to relocate and also have the building we own and an offer to buy it,” said Green, noting he’s “thought long and hard about this, following his return from a trip to the D.C. area” and a historic house he saw. “I looked at that house and its history and tied that to Presque Isle in a way. We’re unlike other communities — Portland, Camden — that have strict guidelines as to what can be done. We haven’t done that.”
An independent analysis, requested by the city, provided an improvement cost analysis of what would need to be done to bring the Second Street building up to code, including fire suppression systems, upgrading stairwells to meet fire safety guidelines, heating, electrical costs and other needed improvements. The total project cost was estimated at just over $1.2 million.
“This building is coming up on 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,” said Green.
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 said however you want to look at it, people get emotional about this 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 reduce the municipality’s annual budget needs.
Engels said he’d vote the way he had before, in opposition to the sale.
“We’ll get $150,000 from the sale, it’ll cost about $285,000 to move into another building and build the council chamber … one lease is $10 million, with the other $15 million. 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,” Engels said.
Chasse agreed with Engels, noting that “both 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,” said Chasse.
Bennett discussed some of the 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,” said Bennett.
Randy Smith said part of the reason to consider selling and move 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,” said Randy Smith.
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 noted that during the tour of the facility earlier in the day and through Harriman’s report, “so many negatives were shown, with a lack of maintenance somehow involved repeatedly,” with revenue sharing or lack thereof impacting the city.
“I am of the opinion that good management plans for necessities,” she said. “I saw disparity in the repair of the steps outside and the eventual cost — repairs were estimated at about $35,000 vs. the actual $13,000-plus. I’m skeptical of Harriman’s fees. We should not let these figures lead us to abandoning this building.”
Mike MacPherson laid out detailed breakdown of costs to maintain the building vs. 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, were approached by the realtor, Jim Dyer, to buy the building. She told councilors the Harriman report missed the need to upgrade insulation in the structure to bring it up to code. She said 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 now was their “down time” when crews were most available for 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. Council’s 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. I’m in favor of a pool; I’m a swimmer and UMPI’s got a great facility. That being said, I’m in favor of keeping this building,” said Wilson. “I looked at Harriman’s numbers — a need for new lock sets … I don’t think Harriman’s figures are sound. (The Harriman report estimated for accessibility that “new lever handled door hardware should be provided throughout the facility, as recommended in the 2006 report, for 58 doors at a cost of $350 each.) If I had a manual and a couple days, I think I could come up with something a lot more conservative. 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.
With that, Emily Smith made the motion to sell, seconded by Randy Smith, with the measure narrowly passing.
