Oriental’s Town Hall, which flooded a few inches in Hurricane Irene in August 2011 has been renovated and is once again open for meetings and business. The renovation project was designed by the Town Manager, Bob Maxbauer who also served as the General Contractor. The Town Board allocated $289,000 for the project. The Town Manager in February sought another $10,000 as a line item to cover cost overruns and said it shouldn’t be held up to scrutiny. Final cost of the Town Hall renovation is as yet unclear as some outlays of money – for some labor, for example – came from other departments and were not recorded as being part of the Town Hall project.
The renovation sparked these words of praise from resident David Marchand.

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Comment on Town Hall Renovation

February 9, 2013

Dear Editor:

With all of the controversy surrounding our new town hall, I would like to offer my congratulations to Town Manager Bob Maxbauer for a job well done.

I stopped by this morning and got the nickel’s tour of the new facility. Being an engineer I was particularly interested in some of the features that improve the integrity of the building during and after a hurricane and some of the energy saving features:

  • The floor level is almost two feet higher than the water level from Irene
  • There is an additional three feet of safety zone that is protected by concrete block walls, strong doors and sump pumps to pump out any leakage
  • The interior walls have a system of ducts and holes in the studs allowing them to be ventilated after flooding to dry them out
  • The walls are tiled for easy cleanup after a flood
  • There will be ramps to elevate police vehicles above any reasonable hurricane surge
  • A simple solar heat collector to heat the floor is installed.

These are only some of the features of this pretty and functional town hall. Go see for yourself and ask Bob for a quick tour.

David Marchand
Oriental
2/6/13

The writer is a retired chemical engineer.


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