The Town of Montague was back in business Friday about 24 hours after a fire destroyed the town hall.
Temporary offices have been set up in the basement of the Rural Action Centre on Main Street with the town’s contact information, phone number and email, working as per normal.
The Montague Fire Department responded to a call at 4:35 a.m. Thursday of a fire at the town hall on Queens Road. When firefighters got there minutes later, the entire roof was in flames and even through most of the structure remains intact, it will have to be demolished.
There was no word on the cause of the fire Friday. The provincial fire marshal’s office said the matter remains under investigation.
Mayor Richard Collins said town staff will operate out of the Rural Action Centre for a couple of weeks.
“(Then) we’re going to rent a mobile and we’re going to have it renovated to suit the staff with a mayor’s office, etc.,’’ Collins said. “And, we’re going to have it located on the parking lot of the present town council building.’’
Collins said insurance will take care of the rental costs associated with the mobile.
He added that despite being in the Rural Action Centre and 11 other offers of space from businesses and organizations in the town, staff preferred the mobile and opted to move back to the site of the current hall.
Collins said offices and departments would have been scattered throughout the Rural Action Centre making it less accommodating to the public. Staff also wanted to return to 24 Queens Road because it’s right next to the town’s maintenance department.
“We’re getting emails; we’re getting phone calls and it’s business as usual in the basement of the Rural Action Centre. We got up and running as soon as we could after the major devastation yesterday.’’
Collins said he’s been inundated with well wishes and offers of help from mayors in Charlottetown, Georgetown, Cardigan, Stratford and others as well as the minister responsible for municipal government.
“We’re overwhelmed with the support we’ve had since yesterday.’’
Collins has also struck a five-member committee that is mandated to handle rebuilding a town hall. That committee includes himself, chief administrative officer Andy Daggett and councillors Jim Bagnall, Debbie Johnston and Daphne Griffin. Bagnall will chair the committee.
“We’ll be getting right down to business as early as next week with our initial meeting to start from square root one and go where we have to go to start the process as quickly as possible.’’
Dave.stewart@theguardian.pe.ca
Twitter.com/DveStewart
