NORTHAMPTON — With the warmer months upon us, the city of Northampton is about to begin what will be a seven-phase repair project to the City Hall building at 210 Main St.
In a presentation to the Northampton Historical Commission on March 25, Patrick McCarthy, the city’s director of the Central Services department, the project will cost $2 million, but because of what is available for funding right now, the project must be phased.
According to McCarthy, the phases include masonry repair, wood and stucco repair, painting on the exterior, and repairs to concrete, stairs, doors, windows, turrets and the roof. The final phase is asbestos abatement in the attic.
The hope, according to McCarthy, is that some of the phases can be completed together so the city is not spending several years on the project.
“We’re not making any changes or alterations to the existing structure, we’re only repairing,” McCarthy said of the entire project.
Central Services aims to have capital funding of $325,000 approved next month for the first phase of the project, which will include wood and stucco repair and exterior painting.
McCarthy said he believes the wood repair is a crucial phase to start off with to prevent future water penetration in the building envelope.
“I’m thinking this is the most important phase,” McCarthy said.
According to Sasha Moores, an architectural associate from Dietz & Company, the firm working with the city on this project, the goal is to also clean, scrape, sand and repaint certain wood areas that need it most on the building and install a patching compound to address the cracks in the building’s stucco.
Additionally, there is chipping and water damage along the underside of the exterior ceiling and up along the columns that must be addressed.
Moores said that the plan for this initial phase is to also repaint the exterior walls of the entrance and balcony.
“We will be scraping and sanding and making repairs as needed,” Moores said.
According to McCarthy, the hope is to work on these first-phase repairs sometime this summer.
Capital Improvement Plan
The city’s five-year Capital Improvement Plan, which was presented by Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra during a late March City Council meeting, illustrates how $2 million in capital funding is allocated for the City Hall repairs from fiscal year 2025 through FY29, including $500,000 for the building’s roof in FY26.
These repairs are part of a broader effort from Northampton over the past couple of years to improve the envelopes of major buildings in the city, including the Academy of Music and Memorial Hall.
In a recent meeting, the Northampton City Council approved the appropriation of $426,218 from the city’s Stabilization Fund for emergency repairs to Memorial Hall after a recent report found “escalating structural issues” in the building, which is located at 240 Main St.
The Capital Improvement Plan also illustrates multiple allocations across the five years to the Academy of Music for things like exterior envelope repairs and cooling upgrades.
