Gardner Mayor Michael Nicholson Provides Update on City Hall Auditorium Window Replacement Project
From the Mayor: “The project began this week with the removal of the windows on the south side of the building (Knowlton Street Parking Lot). Crews will be done with the removal of the former windows on the South Side of the building tomorrow and will then move to the North Side of the building to remove those windows (Post Office side).
Beginning tomorrow until further notice, the Employee Parking Lot of City Hall (located between City Hall and the Gardner Post Office) will be closed due to the construction.
This project is being funded by $400,000 that came from the new Elementary School Project coming in under budget allowing these funds to be transferred to other capital projects with a lifespan of at least 30 years. Regulations for borrowed funds in Massachusetts do not allow these funds to be used for paving or to purchase equipment, but rather, are restricted to certain capital projects that have a minimum life span as the same terms of the original loan that was taken out for the new school construction project.
The windows that are being replaced were original to the Auditorium’s construction in the 1950s. These 12 foot windows were single pane windows that both had large draft issues in the winter, fading issues that restricted the amount of light that came into the space, and also had large reverberation problems that added to acoustic issues during events in the auditorium. This project seeks to address those concerns, remove, remediate, and abate any asbestos around the windows, and replace them with energy efficient windows that meet the modern uses of the Auditorium.”