Greenville public safety building nearing completion

GREENVILLE — The new home of the Greenville Fire and Police Departments will be operational sometime early in the new year. 

“The public safety building is very, very near completion,” Town Manager Mike Roy said during a Dec. 27 meeting of the select board (a session moved back a week due to the storm). “You had 400 things on the punch list but please understand they’re minor things such as a dent in the sheet rock or a screw loose on a toilet or something like that.”

USDA Maine State Director Rhiannon Hampson recently announced the last of five major USDA Rural Development grants to central Maine towns in 2023 for fire station construction. Greenville, Plymouth, and Newburgh joined Corinna and Bradford in building spacious public safety buildings using USDA Rural Development Community Facilities grants. Greenville received a grant of $902,000 to help pay for construction of the new public safety building.

Roy said a representative of USDA Maine came up to conduct a facility inspection and made the list for the town manager, who said he has crossed off about 50 items with 300-plus remaining. 

He said the public safety building will need to be thoroughly cleaned before the furniture is delivered. 

Roy said he and Fire Chief Sawyer Murray and Police Chief Jim Carr have been discussing plans for a grand opening celebration, with this likely to be held sometime in the spring. 

The three Greenville officials attended a grand opening for Plymouth’s fire station and there they spoke with U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. Collins mentioned she wanted to attend the event in Greenville, and the town will also invite U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine.

Greenville’s new facility will house the town’s fire department, police department, and a community meeting room in the 19,000-square foot building. The old fire station, built in 1963, had poor insulation, no hot water, and just one bathroom. The new structure will provide ample workspace and room for regional training sessions. It was designed to serve the town’s anticipated needs for many years to come. 

In other business, Roy said an after-school club being offered for 4-year-olds attending pre-K at the Greenville Consolidated School through the Greenville Recreation Department and Moosehead Caring for Kids Foundation has begun with four participants.

“We’re having some challenges hiring a lead person but we were able to find an assistant for that program,” he said. “She’s a senior in high school and she wants to move on to an early childhood program in college so we thought this would be a great opportunity to get her feet wet.”

In the meantime Janet Chasse has been volunteering as the program’s lead and has been serving as mentor to her assistant. 

The plan is for the program to be a stopgap until the new child care facility is constructed on the school property. Earlier this year $1.5 million in federal funding was secured with the passage of the 2023 omnibus spending bill to build a facility on the school campus to house a childcare center, pre-K classrooms, and community recreation center. 

“The town fared fairly well over the last wind and rain event,” Roy said. He said some roads were washed out but public works quickly repaired the travelways.

Storm damage assessment forms for the Piscataquis County Emergency Management Agency have been completed as Greenville is looking for federal funds to cover repair materials, employee overtime, and anything else the town spent money on during the response to the weather event. Roy said the county did exceed the damage threshold to be eligible for federal relief.

He said town officials will need to consider options for Fourth of July fireworks as the pyrotechnics company let him know it will be unable to have a display in Greenville on the holiday due to a staffing shortage. 

“The options are the 3rd, the 5th, or the 6th but the 4th (they) cannot do,” Roy said, saying the company understands if the town opts to go with someone else that can be there on Thursday, July 4.

Roy attended an eclipse planning meeting on Dec. 11. “Now going forward we’ll have a few more meetings with public safety and EMA to discuss the next steps,” he said, saying transportation officials and restaurant owners attended the last session along with game wardens.

“So as we get close to April 8 we will have several more meetings to discuss it,” the town manager said.

Around 3:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Monday, April 8, 2024 the moon will be fully in front of the sun for a total solar eclipse, after leading up to the event starting at around 2 o’clock that day. Among the best viewing spaces in the country will be Piscataquis County with thousands of visitors projected to be coming to the region for the event.

To help plan for the influx of people, representatives of Northern Light Mayo and CA Dean Hospitals, fire and police departments from across the region, and emergency management agencies have been busy working to get ready.

Roy also shared a letter from the Friends of Wilson Pond. The non-profit organization has given the town a $500 donation in lieu of taxes.