Athol Police Station closed due to water damage

ATHOL – Damage caused by a burst sprinkler at the Athol Police Station could take up to six months to repair, according to Police Chief Craig Lundgren.

At around noon on Thursday, Nov. 20, a failure in the sprinkler system at the station caused flooding that resulted in extensive damage to the building, according to Lundgren. For now, the building is closed to the public.

During an inspection of the building, said Lundgren, “They found a sprinkler head above the ceiling tile; you wouldn’t even know that it was there. But we have sprinkler heads that are above the ceiling tiles and one of them was all rusted out and it burst, so we had the station flooded with water.”

A short statement from Town Manager Shaun Suhoski Thursday afternoon said, “All town emergency services including police, fire and emergency medical response remain available. If there is an emergency, call 911 for the best response. For general calls the temporary number is 978-249-8275. The building is being assessed for damages and restoration.”

“As of right now, the station is closed,” Lundgren told the Athol Daily on Friday. “We have the Orange Police Department command post out front with an officer who will be there 24 hours a day, just in case somebody drives in and they have questions or they need something right away. Dispatch will be handled at the Athol Fire Department; our dispatchers are working at the fire station.”

Regarding emergency 911 calls, Lundgren said, “they’ll go to Shelburne Falls Central Control State Police dispatch. So, we also have a dispatcher working on 911 calls that go into Shelburne Control. They have communication with our officers so they can dispatch police officers. The Orange command post that we have in front of the station has radios to both Shelburne Control State Police dispatch and Athol Police.”

Lundgren said adjusters from the town’s insurance company toured the station Friday but had no estimate on the amount of damage at that time.

Repairing the station, he said, “Is going to be a lengthy process. It could be at least six months. There are major repairs that need to be done, but we’re hopeful that by Tuesday, when the electrical inspector comes and the engineer comes and the representative from 911 comes, that we can have dispatch open again and we can start handling foot traffic at the station. We’re all meeting again Tuesday to see if we can have dispatch back and, if so, we can then open the doors to foot traffic.”

Because of the amount of water damage, the electricity to the building has been shut off, meaning all computers are down.

“We’re functioning at bare minimum,” said Lundgren, “but the most important thing is that we do have officers out there who will be contacted by radio; we have people answering phones.”

Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.