Windham’s Town Council is revisiting plans for renovating or replacing the town’s public works facility.

A $7.66 million bond to rebuild the facility was rejected by voters in October, with 997 voting for and 1100 against the proposal.

At the town council meeting June 7, they discussed possible steps for moving forward with the proposal, including looking for new cost estimates on the building and increasing public outreach about the proposal.

While there’s no set date for the Public Works facility to return to the council chambers, Town Manager Tony Plante said town staff is working to update the cost estimates from the original proposal and gathering information necessary for the council to determine whether and how to move forward with plans for the facility.

The 8,783-square-foot public works facility on Windham Center Road, which is shared between the town and Regional School Unit 14, is too small to meet the needs of both departments, according to town officials.

According to Plante, the Public Works facility was constructed in 1980, and additions were constructed in 1982 and again in 1984.

The public works facility was first identified as the town’s top priority for renovations or reconstruction in 1998. The first plan for a $3.9 million facility, presented a couple years later, was rejected by voters, according to Plante.

One of the biggest problems with the facility is a lack of space, according to Fortier, particularly for employees.

The office staff and maintenance crew share the same multi-purpose room, which functions as a meeting room, break room and lunchroom, Fortier said. The offices of administrative staff members are right off the meeting room, Fortier said, which can be distracting for staff when the room is in use.

The maintenance crew uses a locker room in the downstairs of the building and off of the public works garage. The room, which has roughly 200 feet of open space, lacks showers and a changing area, Fortier said.

The facility not only lacks space for people, according to Fortier, but also lacks space for vehicles and equipment.

The Public Works Department maintains roughly 70 town-owned vehicles, according to Fleet Manager Dave Poree, between public works trucks, police cruisers and fire engines.

There are five bays for fixing and storing vehicles, which are shared between the town and the school district. This is inadequate to fix the number of vehicles that routinely need maintenance, according to Fortier. Sometimes the department needs to move a truck or car out of the garage in the middle of fixing it in order to bring in a different, higher-priority vehicle for maintenance.

The town’s 2014 proposal included 10 bays to be shared between the town and the school district. This would not only give the crew room to fix trucks in need of repair, but would also allow the department to “service trucks in the off-season and store trucks inside during winter so if there’s a snowstorm, they’re ready to go,” Fortier said.

The 10 bays in the town’s 2014 proposal included one wash bay, used for rinsing and cleaning the vehicles. Fortier said the department was told recently they cannot wash vehicles outside, as they had previously, in accordance with Clean Water Act regulations. The town does not have plans as of yet for how they will clean the vehicles.

Keeping vehicles serviced and cleaned is a piece of the work the department does to maintain “millions of dollars worth of equipment and infrastructure,” according to Town Manager Tony Plante, but “the space is inadequate to support what these guys do.”

The demand on the Public Works department has increased in the past decade, according to Plante, not only due to the increase in the town’s population but also “due to the demand of a 24/7 society.”

Residents used to stay home if the roads were bad, Plante explained, but now they expect roads to be kept clear during a major snowstorm.

Fortier said he would like to hire more staff to meet the increased demand, but “there’s no room for them,” he said, referring to the lack of office space and parking.

According to recent survey of Windham residents conducted by a professor at the University of Washington in St. Louis, 50% of Windham residents think the public works building should be renovated, and 37% believe the town should construct a new building.

258 residents took the survey, which was sent to Windham residents by email and promoted on the town’s Facebook page.

Plante said rebuilding the facility on the existing public works site is the option of choice in part because the facility “doesn’t have the luxury of closing down” for renovations.

Public Works Director Doug Fortier speaks with an employee outside one of the bays of the public works garage. The garage’s five bays are inadequate to meet the needs of the department, according to Fortier. 

Public Works Director Doug Fortier stands in the narrow locker room used by the department’s crew. 

Fortier, front, and Administrative Assistant Edra Long review the 2014 plans for a new public works facility in the department’s combined meeting room and lunch room.