Commissioners OK courthouse cupola renovation

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

    DOVER-FOXCROFT — While extensive renovations have been done to the Piscataquis County courthouse in recent years, the cupola on the roof is still showing its age.
    But that will soon change, as county commissioners approved spending $13,550 to refurbish the copper roof system, replace the clapboard siding, restore existing trim with aluminum coil stock, repair flashing components and repaint adjoining surfaces.

Observer photo/Mike Lange

    SET FOR RENOVATION — The courthouse cupola will get a major facelift this spring or summer, thanks to action taken last week by the Piscataquis County Commissioners.

    The lower of two bids for the work was submitted by LL Construction of Dover-Foxcroft (Linus J. Lewis) and commissioners agreed to hire the firm.
    “It’s decorative rather than functional, but it’s also a historic piece,” Interim County Manager Tom Lizotte told the commissioners at last week’s meeting. “We’d get a lot of flak from the historical preservation folks if we didn’t maintain it.”
    Lizotte explained that there are only a few companies that do this type of work, so it’s better to make a decision early in the year, even if the work may not commence until spring or summer.
    Facilities Manager Dave Ronco and Lizotte both recommended hiring LL Construction. In addition to their bid being nearly $5,000 lower than Roof Systems of Maine, Ronco pointed out that they were also a local firm. “I think they’d (LL) be more responsive to us,” Lizotte said.
    The Piscataquis County courthouse was built in 1886 and renovated five times, most recently in 2011 when district court moved into the building from the adjacent Peaks House. Superior and district courts now have a shared staff.
    On a related matter, Lizotte and commissioners discussed what to do about an unused steel flagpole near the peak of the courthouse roof that has apparently been unused for years. “To me, that’s an OSHA accident waiting to happen,” Lizotte said. “I don’t know how they ever raised a flag up there.” Ronco, who has been a county employee for 17 years, said that he agreed. “There’s no hardware on it anymore, so you couldn’t put a flag up there if you wanted to,” Ronco said.
    Lizotte said that he’d like to see it taken down “before it falls down and hits somebody” and suggested that a smaller pole could be installed close to a second-floor window.
    Other action taken at the Jan. 6 meeting included electing a new chairman and the gavel was turned over to Fred Trask of Milo. Current chairman Jim Annis was elected as vice-chairman.
    This was also the first meeting for newly-elected Commissioner James White of Guilford, who succeeded Eric Ward of Greenville. Ward declined to seek re-election.
    Annis was also reappointed as the representative to the Maine County Commissioners Association and as an ex-officio member of the Piscataquis County Economic Development Council.
    Lizotte was appointed to represent the county on the Eastern Maine Development Council board of directors; and White, a truck driving instructor at Tri-County Technical Center, volunteered to serve as a CLEO (chief local elected official) on the Tri-County Workforce board of directors.