11 South Street is open for business
By Caitlyn Kelleher Journal Reporter

Workers from Fitton Moving and Storage unload a truck carrying furniture and other items from the Westminster's old Town Hall on Bacon Street and move them into the new Town Hall on South Street on Thursday, Feb. 15. Town Hall employees spent Thursday and Friday organizing their offices for the grand opening on Tuesday, Feb. 20. Journal Photo / Jeffrey W. Boudreau

For the first time as a Westminster employee, Town Coordinator Karen Murphy is settling into her own office.

Murphy's office sits in the front of the second floor of the new Town Hall and is adjacent to the Board of Selectmen's meeting room. Murphy has conducted her work in the Board of Selectmen's meeting room since she began working for the town.

She spent the early part of the week sorting through boxes to determine which files will go into which cabinet while ensuring the town's business is still conducted.

The only decorations so far on her walls are prints of Norman Rockwell's "Four Freedoms."

"I wanted that up first because I love that," she said. "It is so a part of a town hall."

The four prints stand out against the white walls with blue-gray trim, in a way they never did on the wood paneling of the old town hall.

Building Inspector Office employees Dale Lucier (l.) and Marcia Thorell unpack their office space in Westminster's new Town Hall. The town offices were closed for two days to allow employees the time to get their offices ready. Journal Photo / Jeffrey W. Boudreau

The smell of new paint and new flooring filled the two-story building as the Westminster Town Hall employees spent their first day conducting business in their long-awaited home on Tuesday, Feb. 20.

The new Town Hall opened its doors after a 17-month construction process, which was about six months longer than expected. The Town Hall Building Committee broke ground on the building on Sept. 20, 2005.

Built by Eastern General Contractors, the project cost about $4.5 million to construct with an additional $700,000 for "soft" costs.

"We came in just under 1 percent of the construction cost for change orders," Murphy said. "We came in on budget."

She said the two biggest items were the additional site work required to put in the foundation as well as a change to the mechanics of the building.

The contractor still has a punch list of items to finish, with the largest being the landscaping around the exterior of the building. This part of the project was delayed until spring. Overall the move into the building from the old town hall went smoothly despite the recent snow storm, Murphy said. The movers began packing up boxes on Monday, Feb. 12, before the town hall closed its doors to the public on Wednesday, Feb. 14, to do the final move on that Thursday and Friday.

The former town hall at 3 Bacon St. is now almost entirely dark, Murphy said. The building, which has suffered from a deteriorating structure, a lack of office and storage space, as well as mold and ventilation system issues, now only houses a computer system to run the account software.

"It looks so sad," Murphy said. "It was full of life."

The town is in the process of converting the accounting programs, so the old system continues to be run in the old town hall while the new one is set up in the new building.

A revamped accounting program isn't the only change the South Street building will host.

There are other changes that town officials hope make the experience more consumerfriendly.

Town Hall will no longer be closed for lunch between 1 and 2 p.m. Instead the employees in each office will take a rotating lunch break.

"We've been talking about this for quite a while," Murphy said. "We just figured this will be the time to do it."

Residents and other Town Hall customers will also benefit from the new voicemail system in Town Hall. All of the departments will remain reachable at the same phone numbers, but instead of being transferred to a general voicemail account, each department will have a box.

There will also be an increasing number of email accounts for town employees, said Murphy. The changes come as Town Hall moves onto the same server as the police and fire departments.

The town will also be phasing out the use of post office boxes. Instead, mail will be delivered to the building. The new mailing address is 11 South St., Westminster.