Environmental specialist moves into former Canaan Town Hall

FALLS VILLAGE — After months of searching, the town has finally found a tenant for the former town hall building at 107 Main St.

At Monday’s Board of Selectmen meeting, the board authorized First Selectman Pat Mechare to execute a contract with Salisbury resident Michael Klemens, who will locate his planning and environmental consulting business there as of Aug. 20.

In addition, Klemens has an associate who may open a small antiques business in the front of the building.

Klemens will replace former tenant  Clifton Yeager, an  artist and muralist who relocated his studio after buying the former St. Patrick’s Catholic church around the corner on Beebe Hill Road.

Mechare said Klemens will mostly work alone. He will pay the town $1,500 a month in rent, which includes electricity and water but not heat.

The lease covers two years.  Klemens is a member of the Salisbury Planning and Zoning Commission and was chair of the Planning Commission in Rye, N.Y., for more than a decade. His specialty is herpetology, the study of reptiles and amphibians.

Constructed in 1901 to replace a structure that had burned down, 107 Main St. is a town-owned building that houses the Falls Village Senior Center (on the second floor). It was the Town Hall until 2001, when town offices were moved across the street to the former National Iron Bank building.

The interior was recently renovated. Last year the town received a $275,000 state grant to make exterior repairs, including fixing a leaky roof.

Also needed is the removal of a Cold War-era siren that sits on top of the building and is damaging the structure. Some of the aging window frames are also starting to rot and the exterior paint is peeling.

In addition to 107 Main and Town Hall, the town owns the Falls Village Day Care Center, the firehouse, the public works garage and the Beebe Hill schoolhouse

 It will likely own the new firehouse on Route 7 when that facility is finally completed.

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