SWAMPSCOTT — The people in Swampscott have always been proud of their Town Hall for its attentiveness to its history.
The one-time home to General Electric founder Elihu Thomson contains much of the architecture and ambiance that architect James Templeton Kelley designed more than a century ago.
So when the interior of the building was redone late last year, for the sake of efficiency, much attention was paid to staying as historically accurate as possible while making the most sensible use of space.
Thus, the Town Clerk and tax collector’s office were combined an expanded onto a sort of one-stop shopping room, said assistant Town Administrator Ronald Mendes.
The last pieces of the new office were put into place on New Year’s Eve, when the second of two custom-built desks, costing $1,726 each, made from solid maple wood with a laminate top, arrived at Town Hall.
The new office is called Town Hall Custom Service, and it is situated, said Mendes, to assist taxpayers with assessing and payment questions, along with other inquiries such as trash/recycling, vital statistics, voter registration and new resident issues.
“To begin with, the office started off as being the Town Clerk and Tax Collector’s office,” Mendes said. “For any other concerns, we were bouncing residents all over the building.
“We thought it would be better to keep all of the transactions and concerns to one office, on the first floor.”
When Sean Fitzgerald, the town administrator, took over two years ago he noticed the amount of distance within the building people had to travel to go between offices, even if they were performing duties that put them in constant contact with each other, Mendes said.
“There wasn’t a flow to where the offices were located,” Mendes said. “You have people performing similar functions but who were in different offices, and on completely opposite ends of the building.”
It wasn’t enough, though, to expand and remodel the first-floor office. Fitzgerald and Mendes wanted to keep the historical look of the building somewhat in keeping of the era in which the building was constructed. Thus, new furniture was built “that better coordinated with the historic character of the Town Hall building,” Mendes said.
And that included the two desks and countertops that people will see upon entering the office. The furniture was designed and built by the Massachusetts Department of Corrections’ MassCor Industries Program, that provides inmates in the state’s correctional facilities with real-world experience in various trades.
“We had to do some remodeling,” Mendes said. “The old counter that was put in 10 years ago was not in keeping with the history of the office.
“We felt that solid maple counters, custom-made, worked better.
“It’s still functional and useful. We also felt like we needed more counter space for residents and staff.”
MassCor’s mission fit in perfectly with the town’s objectives, Mendes said.
“They have a program where they teach inmates trades. A lot of cities and towns will order custom-made furniture from MassCor, that are made right at the corrections facility. The first of the two desks came in on Christmas Eve, and the second one came in on New Year’s Eve. Now we’re really excited.”
“Over the last year, Swampscott has consolidated a number of Town Hall positions as we seek to drive efficiencies and expand our ‘One Stop’ residential services experience at Town Hall,” Fitzgerald said. “With the new furniture and countertops, we are able to enhance the service and support we provide in this office and really focus on improving the customer service experience.”
Steve Krause can be reached at [email protected].
