Asbestos and Mold Problems Necessitate Town Hall Move, Officials Say

Town Manager Michael Embury said ongoing building and fire code violations along with asbestos and mold problems at North Kingstown Town Hall has necessitated the move of town operations into a different facility.

Addressing the Monday vote by the Town Council to negotiate a short-term lease with a “specific property owner,” Embury said that Town Hall is “rife with asbestos and mold issues” and the building and fire code issues “mandate leaving these buildings.”

The buildings, which he said are functionally obsolete, need $2 million or more in repairs and “remediating structures that are functionally obsolete makes little sense.”

In the short term, the town needs to consolidate town functions into one facility, Embury said. The short-term lease would allow for the council to consider a long-term plan.

In response to concerns raised about council’s private discussions about the issue, Embury said that the council did not violate the Open Meetings Act, citing a section of state general laws that covers what can and can’t be discussed in executive session.

It states a governing body can go private for “any discussions or considerations related to the acquisition or lease of real property for public purposes, or of the disposition of publicly held property wherein advanced public information would be detrimental to the interest of the public.”

He also said the matter does not need a public vote ”any more than the School Administration moving out of their offices and renting space for 5 years at Quonset required a vote by residents.

“Once a lease is successfully negotiated, this will all be in open session,” the Town Manager said.

The plan to move Town Hall functions out of the existing building came up at the town’s Building Code of Review meeting this week.

The lease could be finalized within 30 days.

Town officials have not disclosed the exact location or the potential lessor.

What to do with the existing Town Hall building will be a major issue for the Town Council to solve.

The building opened in 1888 and there will likely be debate about whether the building should be fully repaired or if the town should construct a new Town Hall to replace it somewhere else.

In a letter, former Town Council member Richard Welch said that no matter what, work will have to be completed “regardless of whether the town continues to use the town hall or some other entity purchases or leases the building.

“This is just another case of the current management not paying attention to the town’s assets by not maintaining our property,” Welch, a frequent critic of the town manager, wrote. “The manager is responsible to inform the town council of the condition of these assets and provide options as to what could be done, this has not happened over the last eight years. We have seen our roads fall into disrepair, watched Wickford Elementary fall down into a deplorable condition and the town meeting house sit on blocks at the Wickford Elementary site for the last two years rotting away. When are we going to say we have had enough?”