ATHENS — The smell of fresh paint and the appearance of a new ceiling are the first sensory indications of improvements to the at-least-155-year-old Town Office building.
The work was completed earlier this month spurred by the Town Office Volunteers, an ad hoc group formed last fall desiring to spruce up the former schoolhouse.
The energy behind the group comes from an enthusiastic supporter of preserving Athens' history, Sandi Capponcelli, with not a little help from her husband Don and 30 volunteers from town.
Capponcelli said her interest likely comes as a result of growing up without any family history she knew of, beyond a couple of generations.
She said when she became aware of the long history of the former Athens District No. 2 schoolhouse, now the town offices, she thought, “Damn, we need to save this building. We're not Europe. We don't have a 2,000-year-old history. If we're lucky, we can go back 300.”
“We've got something that is 155 years old and has had however many generations who have walked through that door, in a building that is still in use,” Capponcelli said. “I think we need to preserve it.”
Grant for a ramp
On the heels of these repairs, the Help Americans Vote Act (HAVA) grant proposal for “$9,994 and change” for a wheelchair-accessible ramp was approved and announced this month as well.
The federal program “covers up to $10,000 for a ramp to create handicap access into the town offices,” Capponcelli said.
Capponcelli said her carpenter husband figured out the costs, and with the help of a volunteer, Audrey Levin McLaughlin, senior development officer at Marlboro College, wrote the HAVA grant proposal.
The total cost, including labor, came in around $18,000, for work that included a new door, materials for the ramp, and the roof overhang.
The labor, she said, is half the cost and will be mostly covered by volunteers.
Capponcelli said the location of the ramp should be decided at a meeting this week, when volunteers will consider four possible plans.
“No matter which one we decide on, it will involve replacing a door,” she said.
Roof and ceiling repairs
Dan and Dale Wyman installed the new ceiling for $3,400, and the roof was repaired this month by Jones Roofing for $800.
“The money for both projects came from the town. The Department of Fire Safety said the ceiling needed to be covered because it was a fire hazard,” Capponcelli said.
“The roof needed to be addressed only because it leaked, and fixing the ceiling would have been a moot point if the roof leaked,” she explained.
With a Vermont Preservation Trust (VPT) matching grant for $250 - “A volunteer sold some old town law books for $250, so it cost the town nada,” Capponcelli said - an assessment by the VPT was carried out this month as well.
“It said pretty much what I expected, but we wanted another opinion,” she said. “We'd gotten assessments from [former Selectboard chair] Mike Bates and my husband already.”
No surprises there, Capponcelli said. VPT noted a need for new paint, recommendations for alternative roofing compounds, and window sash repairs. The consultants found no issues with the foundation, though air gaps were noted.
Capponcelli said a local stonemason volunteered to assess the foundation, partially built from granite slabs set upright on their sides and partially concrete. She said there has been discussion about digging out under the building and sealing the gaps.
Scraping down the outside of the building and repainting it is the first priority, however, along with the accessibility ramp.
Capponcelli said she hopes both projects will get started by June, with the labor done by volunteers who will be overseen by professionals.
She said all that activity “is pretty good, considering we only formed the volunteer group last October.”
“I would never have thought we'd get this far by now,” Capponcelli said.