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City Hall closure planned

WARREN — City Hall will be mostly closed to the public again, as many of its employees will be working from their homes.

However, this time, the offices will not be shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The city hall complex is receiving nearly $2 million in upgrades to its buildings — City Hall, the law department and IT department.

Discussions about the projects began prior to 2013, when council approved the selling of nearly $4 million worth of bonds for a variety of projects around the city.

Upgrades at the buildings are being done using funds from $1.1 million worth of bonds sold in 2013, as well as a $200,000 grant for HVAC improvements, and $500,000 awarded to it from Save America’s Treasures Grant provided by the National Parks Service’s Historic Preservation fund.

Safety Service Director Eddie Colbert announced during Wednesday’s city council meeting that work on the outside of the City Hall building has been ongoing in recent weeks. However, next week, the work will be happening inside of City Hall, so it will be difficult for City Hall employees to do their jobs in that environment.

Colbert estimated the work will take about six weeks to complete.

All hours of operation and phone numbers will remain the same.

People with urgent business should call the front office between 9 and 10 a.m. and between 3 and 4 p.m., according to Colbert.

Law Director Enzo Cantalamessa expects the law department to remain open during the time City Hall is being renovated. Work on the law building, which is across a parking lot from City Hall, will begin after the City Hall renovation is complete.

Cantalamessa said the work on the law department building includes replacing some window, tuck pointing, gutters, HVAC repair and replacement, and some replacement of drywall and carpeting.

Cantalamessa said the work at the law office should not take as long as city hall, because it is a smaller building.

In 2013, the city sold $4 million worth of bonds to do a variety of improvement projects at city-owned facilities. According to officials at the Warren Building department, approximately $2.7 million worth of work of the $4 million of bonds sold has been completed.

Efforts to solicit bids for the work at the City Hall complex were put out in 2018, but they came back significantly higher than the architect’s projections. Bids also were sought for the HVAC work at city hall and the law building, but none were received.

City hall was built in 1871 by Henry Bishop Perkins, president of Warren’s First National Bank, as his home. It is an ornate, 20-room mansion on the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places. Five former and future presidents visited the home. The last renovation was in 1976, thanks to a $175,000 grant.

The city purchased the mansion in 1931 for $75,000.

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