Town prepares Thornton Burgess building handover; $15,000 account, masonry work and services flagged

Town staff told the Select Board on May 19 they will coordinate the June 30 handover of the Thornton Burgess building (the former school) and use an available $15,000 allocation to cover immediate occupancy needs including repair priorities and custodial services.

The town official said a room‑by‑room assessment of the building was complete and that immediate needs will be finalized in a short report. “If we’re going to use the funding that’s available, the $15,000 that’s available, we’ll need to use that…there’s certainly needs that we can spend it on,” the staff member said. He noted masonry repairs were estimated at about $13,000 and suggested that could be handled from that allocation.

Staff and board members discussed maintaining continued services at the building, confirming fire protection and addressing security and custodial arrangements; some operational details were deferred to a non‑public conversation because of security considerations. Staff also noted network hardware items (switches and wireless access points) are likely town assets to be retained for municipal use and that the organization occupying the building had left Internet service active through town meeting so temporary connectivity is available.

Ending: Staff will finalize the occupancy needs report, decide how to allocate the $15,000 by June 30 and return to the board with a plan for continued services, custodial coverage, and any procurement needed to occupy the facility.