Pillar of the community
By Elizabeth Prata Salvetti

Gray--D.C Construction has not been neglecting the unfinished columns at Stimson Hall. The construction project to fortify and repaint the four columns gracing the 100 year-old building has been ongoing since last December. "The problem was that the columns were taking water," said Dennis Cricones, President of D. C. Construction.

Stimson Hall is part of the Town of Gray's overall buildings and grounds maintenance plan. Earlier this year,renovations included rebuilding and fortifying the balcony floor.

"Once we started, we found more and more things impacting the columns. The type of mahogany we needed became unavailable, when the restriction was placed on exports from South America." Cricones then pointed to the gutters, pitched incorrectly so that the collected water was draining into the two end columns. He said that they painted the columns, but saw that they were continuing to swell. "We kept asking why are they swelling from the inside? Once we found the water problem, we decided to fiberglass them, like a boat, and replace 60 feet of gutter." Then they let them set over the winter to see if it worked.

It did. The crew plans to finish three of the columns by the end of August, and the fourth, subcontracted out to be re-built, will be installed by the end of September.

At right, Cricones and crew member work on the third column. The first, seen at far left, is being rebuilt and will be installed by late September. The Hall is on Route 26 (Shaker Road), and is where the Town holds most of its meetings.