Waldoboro town office ready for employees

WALDOBORO – Paramedics pieced together furniture parts Wednesday, while the police chief lifted an office chair and boxes from the back of his pickup truck.

It was moving day at the town office and everyone was pitching in.

The $600,000 building project – which redesigned portions of the building and included two additions – was essentially completed and workers were scurrying to get furniture and supplies back in place.

During construction, the police and ambulance departments had relocated to the former SAD 40 superintendent’s building on Kalers Road and town office personnel had shifted their desks into the ambulance bays.

On Wednesday, employees began to set up the new office and new office furniture.

The building face-lift, which nearly doubled the building size, ended up coming in at a cost that saved about $54,000, town officials reported last month. Town Manager Lee Smith was not available Wednesday for comment.

Scattered throughout the building were colorful office chairs and shiny new work stations. The beds for the ambulance dormitories were being set up by paramedic Mary Cate Moody and Anthony Prock, an emergency medical technician in training.

A new telephone system with voice-mail capability was expected to be operational today. However, town officials indicated that calls to the town office will be answered by a live person, except for after hours. The telephone numbers will not change.

One of the goals was to make the municipal building more user-friendly, with easier access to the police department, which will have a lobby-reception area, chief’s office, conference room, evidence room and patrol room.

The package also provided an addition to the building that has a large meeting room and break room, a kitchen, two dorms and a shower for public safety personnel and restrooms.

The town manager, code officer, assessor and administrative assistant have new office spaces, and there is a spare office. Administrative workers will be able to assist residents at a long customer service counter off a foyer, located inside the front door.

Most noticeable is the new entrance, which has been moved from the side of the building and boasts four white columns.