Town Hall Boarded Windows

GEORGETOWN – Tired of looking at the boarded windows at Town Hall?
The first of the 62 restored windows will be installed later this month. The front windows will be in by the end of June, according to Town Administrator Orlando Pacheco.
And all the windows are expected to be in place to block out the cold this winter.
All thanks to your Community Preservation Funds.
Community Preservation Funds, which come from a portion of your property taxes, provide a steady source of money for preserving and improving a community’s character and quality of life. The Community Preservation Act authorizes projects in open space, affordable housing and historical preservation.
The appropriation of $450,000 was approved by 277 to 32 at last week’s Annual Town Meeting.
The only question was why the windows were costing the town about $7,000 each, when as the lone speaker on the issue at the Town Meeting said there was a window manufacturer in Georgetown which would make the windows for much less.
“We have been asked quite a few times why are we restoring the existing windows as opposed to buying new windows that would be cheaper,” Pacheco wrote in an email. “The Town in 1999 adopted a Preservation Restriction for the exterior of Town Hall and the building is listed on the National Historic Register, so the rehabilitation options have to be done in accordance with certain standards.”
He wrote that some hazardous materials around the windows had to be removed and abated, “which also drove the cost up. Even if we could put in new windows this would have still been an issue in disposing of the old windows.”
The work began, using a $98,000 grant from the Massachusetts Projects Preservation Fund Grant from the Massachusetts Historical Commission, he wrote. But Pacheco told the Town Meeting members that the state historical commission had turned down the town’s request for additional funds to complete the restoration project.
If the Community Preservation Commission (CPC) had not supported the windows project or the Town Meeting had voted it down, you might have been looking at the boarded windows for another year.
The town hired the Spencer Preservation Group of Nahant, which has a strong record in historic preservation, to design the restored windows. Homer Construction of Arlington is the project’s general contractor, which is working with Olde Bostonian of Boston on the restoration services.