Community Center set to close for a month this spring for repairs

The Springfield Community Center will be closed for a month later this spring for repairs to its foundation.
http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20150415/NEWS02/704159929

Community Center set to close for a month this spring for repairs By Susan Smallheer Staff Writer | April 15,2015 Photo by Len Emery Wooden pilings and braces stabilize the front wall and foundation of the Springfield Community Center on lower Main Street and is now scheduled for major repairs. SPRINGFIELD — The Springfield Community Center will be closed for a month later this spring for repairs to its foundation. Town Manager Thomas Yennerell said that the contract for the $93,712 worth of repairs had been awarded to All Seasons Construction of Springfield, the low bidder for the work on the 1888 landmark. Other firms bidding on the work were Neil H. Daniels Construction of Ascutney, with a bid of $108,850; and Pine Hill Construction of Charlestown, N.H., at $125,800. Yennerell said that a firm date for the work to start had not been set, but that a condition of the contract was that work would be completed by July 1. The Springfield Senior Center had been forced to shut down its ceramics program in the basement of the building last fall because of the crumbling brick foundation on the Main Street side of the building. The brick pilasters in the basement of the building were showering debris on the ceramics students. Yennerell said that All Seasons would jack up the building — probably about half an inch — and pour concrete onto the building’s three-foot-thick stone foundation, replacing crumbling brick pilasters. The work also includes replacing the brickwork along the sidewalk, which is part of the building’s foundation. The building was one of the first homes of Jones, Lamson & Co., when it moved to Springfield. When J&L built its plant on Clinton Street, the building was converted to a club for the Springfield Manufacturers’ Association. It has a bowling alley in the basement The association and J&L gave it to the town in 1942. He said that Springfield Senior Center Director Terri Emerson was making plans for a temporary home for the senior center while the building was closed. He said that some of the activities would be transferred to the first floor of the Town Hall, but that Emerson was trying to hold events that require more space before construction would begin. As far as the other recreation activities held in the historic building, Yennerell said many of the activities would be held outside anyway with the arrival of good weather. Funding for the project will be taken out of the town’s recreation department’s capital budget, and will be repaid with money earmarked for the project in the new fiscal year budget, he said. Yennerell said he guessed the start date for the construction would be “later May into June,” but he said it was only a guess.