State helps fund Pawlet elevator
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By Gordon Dritschilo Staff Writer - Published: April 16, 2009
PAWLET — Renovations at the historic Town Hall got a boost Wednesday, but still have a long way to go.
Vermont Economic Development Commissioner Betsy Bishop presented a state check for $50,000 to town officials Wednesday. Project Manager Karen Folger said that brought the town's fund up enough to cover an elevator for the two-story building.
The town has been working on the building since 1998.
"A lot of what we spent to start with was necessary to keep it standing up to begin with," Select Board Chairman Keith Mason said. "It wasn't renovations, it was maintenance and repair."
More recently, Folger said, the town has worked on the front porch and the upstairs auditorium. That work included updating the heating, insulation and electrical system, rebuilding and restoring the windows and installing a handicap-accessible bathroom.
The elevator, which will bring the building into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, will go on the site of an old outhouse on the back of the building.
Stanley Zavistaski, a former selectman who still serves on the committee raising money for the project, said the building was constructed in 1881.
"The town office started with one room," he said, gesturing to the Town Clerk's office. "The rest of this was owned by one individual. The downstairs was a store. At one time, part of it was a residence."
The building also served as a library for a time.
Zavistaski said all the building's interior walls are original, and still have the original planking.
"They've never been altered, really," he said. "Sheetrock's gone on them and a bathroom's been created."
Upstairs, in the auditorium, the building's old woodstove still sits in a corner. Town Treasurer Judy Coolidge said people used to sit around it on benches during town meeting, and will get to again once the work is complete.
As renovations proceeded upstairs, Folger said, workers uncovered one more thing to restore — a painted plaster ceiling. Stencil work lines the edges, and the center holds a golden ring surrounding a blue and white circle, as if trying to simulate a skylight.
Folger said she expects the elevator and associated improvements to be done in about three months. The rest, she said, depends on fundraising.
gordon.dritschilo@rutlandherald.com
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