Greenville masons look to rebuild following lodge fire

GREENVILLE — Weeks after an overnight fire ripped through the Greenville Masonic Lodge at 281 Pritham Ave, masons of Columbia-Doric #149 have begun to think about rebuilding.

Lodge Secretary Geno Murray wanted to update the community during a Jan. 7 select board meeting.

Saying area fire departments responding did a great job keeping the fire under control in very cold early morning conditions, Murray — who is also the select board chair — mentioned three different engineers have been on site to help the masons determine options for moving forward.

The lodge had a blanket insurance policy of over $1 million, Murray said. A $500,000 check should arrive shortly for the rebuilding process.

“We lost everything and people are being very generous at this point, but what we’re doing is we’re trying to rebuild,” he said. This process could take two to three years, based on engineer and contractor estimates and the cost estimate is $3 to $4 million.

“We’re really trying to define what the next generation of what that building and function needs to look like,” Murray said.

“We are never going to have the same building that we had,” he said, saying community members have shared their shock and sadness over the loss of the structure that stood for nearly a century.

The cause of the fire may never be known. Investigators have found no evidence to suggest the blaze that began in the basement kitchen was intentionally set.

Engineers have been working to determine the integrity of the structure still standing. 

“Some folks would like to try to keep as much of that up as possible and then line the inside of it and build it back up, but we’re a ways away from that,” Murray said.

“We still have none of our records, none of our bibles, none of our desks,” he said. “The only thing that’s left from that fire was my briefcase because I’m the secretary and it was home.”

The lodge treasurer also had his briefcase at home at the time of the fire.

In other business, Town Manager Mike Roy asked the board to think about roads in need of work that can be included in a request for proposals he is drafting. The RFP includes work to repair damage from a December 2023 storm with FEMA funds.

A project with a larger scope of work could be more appealing to contractors.

One road that may be included is the Varney Road leading to the Greenville Municipal Airport. 

“That road is probably one of the worst roads in town right now to drive on,” Roy said, with pavement coming apart and in need of repair. The travelway is nearing a point where a snowplow could not clear the surface without catching the plow in cracks.

“It would be a travesty if we have done all this work at the airport, really beefing that up and bringing it up to speed, and we still couldn’t take care of the rest of it,” Murray said. “It just doesn’t make sense.”

The select board had a virtual tour of the Shaw Public Library with new Director Rachel Daigle.

Showing some changes to the now 100-year-old library, Daigle said a full inventory is being conducted for the first time in more than a decade. 

“That literally means putting your hands on every book in that library and matching that information to our computer system and making sure it exists in our computer system and figuring out what is missing and due back,” Daigle said.

An upstairs work/study area has been set up with chairlift access. Many library patrons may not realize there is an upstairs, Daigle said. 

“They have worked until their eyeballs have fallen out doing this inventory and also reconfiguring the library,” Show Public Library Trustee Kathy Bishop said in thanking Daigle and Library Assistants Andrea Johns, Virginia Jones and Mary Stefanik.

“They’ve been willing to work to every crazy whim I’ve had so far, they are incredible and working their butts off to get all of us done,” Daigle said.

When asked about missing items, she said some of these have been checked out and not returned so phone calls are being made. A few items may have been brought home by seasonal residents.

In his report, Roy said he has lots of great feedback about the skating rink. He thanked the various contractors who have donated time and labor to make the outdoor facility possible. 

He said town officials need to start thinking about the 2026-27 municipal budget. Advertising will begin soon for budget committee members, with interested candidates to be approved by the select board.

Some inquiries have been made about a Tax Increment Financing committee but no applications had been submitted yet, Roy said. 

The town website says the select board is looking to form a committee to help develop a TIF program for Greenville. Five to seven forward-thinking and community-minded residents are sought to work with the town’s consulting team to facilitate the effort. 

Mentioning how in November residents voted down a referendum question — via  a yes/no count of 276 to 366 — asking if they favor authorizing the board to investigate the possibility of applying for a municipal bond from the Maine Municipal Bond Bank for additional funding necessary to complete the YES (Youth, Education and Sports) Building in an amount not to exceed $1,000,000, Roy said organizers are still moving forward with the project.

“We’re looking at ways to reduce costs, we’re working with a contractor and hopefully I’ll have some information soon,” Roy said. 

Revisions include reducing the size of the building and removing a sports court with the space to now be a function room.

The project consists of creating a building (a cost of over $4 million had previously been mentioned) to house collaborative activities, a child care center, public pre-school classrooms and a community recreation center.

The Moosehead Caring for Kids Foundation received a $1,561,000 federal grant several years ago to build a new facility on the school campus on Pritham Avenue. The new building would be located approximately where the former Nickerson Elementary once stood. The foundation designated the town as the subrecipient of the grant, which means that the town will build the new facility.

The foundation, town and school have been working together to plan and construct the building, which has yet to be named. 

After negotiating with contractors, building costs were reduced from $4.6 million to $4.1 million. The group has raised $3.3 million, but they feel there are not too many other non-municipal funding sources and a request for more was made to the town last year.