Presque Isle weighs city hall renovation plans

PRESQUE ISLE – A small item on the City Council agenda – an expenditure authorization for boiler repairs at City Hall – briefly turned into a much larger conversation Monday night when talk turned to long-term building renovations, according to City Manager Tom Stevens.

City councilors authorized the expenditure of $2,500 from the city’s unclassified contingent account to pay for the boiler repairs, which were completed earlier this year, Stevens said Tuesday.

He said workers used a sealant from Germany to patch several sections of the aging boiler. He added that the equipment is “going to need to be replaced somewhere along the line.”

Stevens said he explained to the council that a new boiler would be more energy efficient, but that if the city installs a new one, it will have to bring the city building it heats “up to the new codes.”

“As long as we don’t replace the boiler, we’re in code,” Stevens reiterated. “But if we replace it, we have to bring it up to a higher standard.”

That prompted the question of whether the city should consider working toward a new boiler now or making it part of the long-term renovation effort for City Hall, which is expected to begin this year.

The city set aside about $5,000 in 2005 and $30,000 in 2006 for City Hall renovations, with a plan to allocate more money into the city hall reserve account in the next three to seven annual budgets. The council recently gave the city manager a directive to put out a bid for an architect/engineer to “come up with a long-term plan for building renovations,” Stevens said.

The council did not make a determination during their meeting on plans for a new boiler, but, Stevens said, they asked to be kept informed on its options.

In other news, the council:

. Received good news in terms of the city’s finances. City officials announced that Moody’s Investors Service, a key player according to Stevens in the rating of municipalities and states, upgraded one of the city’s long-term debts, to better reflect the city’s “stable financial operations, strong reserve position and its continued role as a regional economic center.”

“It’s good news,” Stevens said Tuesday. “It shows financial stability in the community and it’s the results of some good hard council work as well as work through the finance office.”

Stevens said the impact of the news to the city is that when financial institutions look to loan the city money, they typically use Moody’s ratings.

“If we were going to borrow money, we’d like to think this would serve the city favorably,” Stevens said.

. Made a motion after an executive session to create an exception to the city’s personnel rules and regulations that will allow Detective Sgt. Bill Campbell to be assigned to the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency. According to Stevens, the MDEA “can’t hire people directly, so it seeks sponsorships and then reimburses communities.”

However, the city’s personnel rules allow city employees to work only for the city. Stevens said that Campbell is expected to work with the agency for a period of about three years and will have the option to return to the police department.