GORHAM – After hearing alarming details of substandard conditions at Gorham’s Public Safety Building, the Gorham Town Council, which at one time had considered moving the police station to Little Falls, could opt instead for a new complex.

The Public Safety Building at 270 Main St. houses the police department and the central station for fire and rescue. The council heard Tuesday about building problems with ventilation, falling ceiling plaster, and restrooms, locker rooms and showers shared by both men and women.

“Citizens would be shocked to see the conditions,” Town Councilor Matt Mattingly said.

Philip Gagnon, vice chairman of the council, said police are in near “squalor” conditions at the nearly 40-year-old building. It was constructed in 1974 to house municipal offices, which moved to the renovated former Shaw School six years ago.

The council voted 6-0 (Suzanne Phillips abstaining) to ask Brian Curley of PDT Architects to develop options that would include creating one public safety facility at either the present site in the village or at the site of the former Little Falls School on Acorn Street.

“Main Street makes the most sense,” Town Councilor John Pressey said.

The council didn’t take action that would have sent a $5.7 million plan to voters in a November referendum. Under that proposal, the former Little Falls School would have been converted for police use and the present Public Safety Building would have been renovated.

“I don’t support coming out in November because we haven’t done our homework,” said Town Councilor Michael Phinney. ”I don’t want to go with a half-baked project that gets voted down.”

The town long ago identified a need for an upgrade to the facility.

“These people need a decent working space,” said Councilor Brenda Caldwell, chairwoman of the board. “I want something done.”

Police space is cramped. The department, which has one female officer, has only one restroom. Her locker is in the restroom and the men, Lt. Christopher Sanborn of Gorham Police Department said, have a “makeshift locker room.”

“We make do with what we’ve got,” Sanborn said.

The Fire and Rescue Department, which has three full-time women, also lacks separate restrooms and locker rooms.

It’s “far, far from adequate,” Gorham Fire Chief Robert Lefebvre said about conditions.

Gagnon said a falling chunk of plaster from a ceiling this year narrowly missed his young daughter when his family was sitting in the Public Safety Building’s truck bay for the Gorham Founders Festival pancake breakfast.

“We were eating when a piece of plaster from the ceiling area let go and fell through an open ceiling tile and hit the floor roughly 10 feet from us,” Gagnon said Wednesday. “It made enough noise and appeared heavy enough, that if it had struck someone, they would have been injured.”

Sanborn said police don’t have a secured vestibule and that detective space is limited. There is one interview room, inadequate evidence storage and lab facility and no place to impound vehicles. The department does not have a training room or exercise room.

Whether police moved to Little Falls or stayed in the village, Sanborn said, the “bullet points” would need to be addressed.

Lefebvre said central station, which has four college live-in students to bolster its staff, has inadequate ventilation upstairs. Besides shared restrooms and locker rooms, he also cited limited storage. Lefebvre described carpeting in the secretaries’ area as deplorable.

“It’s a morale factor,” Lefebvre said.

Space shortage requires some fire and rescue vehicles be parked outside central fire station. Under the renovation that would have moved police to Little Falls, two more bays would have been added to central station on Main Street.

Lefebvre said expanded space at central station would allow for more students to augment the fire and rescue staff.

“It’s shortsighted, if we don’t plan for expansion in the next 10 years,” Lefebvre said.

Gorham resident Hans Hansen told the council he favored a new building to get public safety personnel “out of a hole. The smart thing is to build a new building.”

Options the council could consider include renovating and expanding either the Public Safety Building or Little Falls School to house public safety departments in one facility. Pressey favored keeping police and fire departments together, but said he had concerns about the economy and saddling property owners with a tax increase.

Jim Means of Beatrice Drive suggested the council “do a 30-year amortization” that would lower the tax impact.

Besides potential use to house police, the 6.5-acre Little Falls School site had once been eyed for a new fire station shared with Windham. Curley said Tuesday an option to demolish the school and build a new central fire station would cost $8 million.

Town Councilor Matthew Robinson advocated a council workshop to discuss options to solve public safety problems. “Everything is up in the air,” Robinson said Tuesday.

Gorham Public Safety Building. (Courtesy photo)