This November, town offices and departments will be moved to temporary locations in preparation for the construction of new public-safety buildings.
Work on the new locations has already begun. The space above the former Lynnfield Pharmacy is under renovation, while the old Lynnfield Public Library annex is looking at a complete rehabilitation, with new windows and interiors.
According to Select Board member Joe Connell, most of the work to prepare the temporary offices will be completed by the end of October, and by early or mid-November, all staff members will have moved to different temporary offices.
Connell said that work on the temporary location for the Fire Department will begin soon as well.
“The temporary fire station is an industrial-sized tent that’ll be placed in the (Department of Public Works) yard,” Connell said. “The material for that has been delivered and they’ll start putting up the tent soon. But then, of course, you have to put heat, water in there and all those things, and that will be figured out as soon as possible.”
Connell said that the largest amount of work will have to be done at the Pope Richard Lynnfield Historical Center before it can be used as a temporary office. Most importantly, the center needs to have ramps placed out front, as it is not currently compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“We also have to put a septic system in there,” he said. “We had to clear some trees out, reconstruct the road going in there for the cars to go behind to park, and improve the electrical system too.”
The building that contains the former Lynnfield Pharmacy will be used as Town Administrator Rob Dolan’s temporary office. Parts of the building will have to be demolished due to its abundance of walls.
“Our DPW head, John Tomasz, is taking care of the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system,” Connell said. “There is additional electrical work too, which is currently being worked on.”
Connell praised Tomasz for his work organizing the moving process.
“He has been doing an absolutely magnificent job,” Connell said. “He has been massively putting this plan together, getting all the right contractors for HVAC systems, plumbing, and working on the ADA-compliance regulations to get the move completed in time.”
After moving to the temporary offices, the staff will operate in them for about a year-and-a-half before moving back to the original locations, which Connell said will undergo complete rehabilitations.
“The old offices were in buildings that were built in the late 1960s,” Connell said. “They are no longer compliant with the regulations and needs of today. The Town Hall building is not ADA-compliant, there’s no elevator.”
