The Gorham Town Council has a new look and will hold the first public meeting in the town’s new municipal center the day it opens for business Tuesday, Dec. 5.

Norman Justice, who was unanimously chosen as chairman of the Gorham Town Council, was handed the gavel last week by outgoing chairman Mike Phinney. The council also picked Burleigh Loveitt unanimously to replace Justice as vice chairman. And Brenda Caldwell and Shonn Moulton have gone to work as new council members elected this month.

It’ll be the first council in the $7 million rehab that converted the former Shaw School, at 75 South St., into the new Gorham Municipal Center. Justice, marking his fourth term as chairman, is happy with the transformation, though, he said Tuesday, he wasn’t an initial supporter of the project.

But voters approved it in a referendum last year. “I’m very pleased,” Justice said. “It has turned out to be a nice project.”

It allows town and school offices to be housed under one roof. The Gorham School Department has leased office space in recent years at the corner of Main Street and Libby Avenue.

The present municipal center, at 270 Main St., will be closed all day on Friday, Dec. 1, and Monday, Dec. 4, to complete the move that began on Nov. 17. It will open for business on Tuesday, Dec. 5. Town offices will be on the ground floor and the school department on the second floor, which is served by an elevator.

A parking lot for the new municipal center can be reached via Morrill Avenue off South Street and then turning onto Ball Park Road.

The new municipal center includes a chamber for the council, which has been meeting in the auditorium at the high school. Each councilor will have a computer. Justice said new equipment includes video display capabilities so electronic presentations to the council could be viewed by people watching TV in their homes.

“We brought in a technical consultant,” Justice said, to ensure up-to-date technology could be utilized.

The Shaw School was built as a high school in 1938. The building, which has had two subsequent additions, served as a junior high school until the new middle school opened in 2003.

The present municipal center will serve as a public safety building for police, fire and rescue. Justice said Gorham is working with PDT Architects of Portland on concepts for upgrading the structure, built in 1974.

Justice said the building has “roofing” problems. “We’re trying to identify what is needed,” Justice said.

Justice said the council would continue to address traffic issues, although construction of the long-awaited Gorham bypass is scheduled to begin next year. The bypass is aimed at reducing traffic congestion in Gorham Village.

But Justice and other councilors are concerned about continued traffic woes on lower South Street where the bypass would intersect. Justice indicated a next step to aid traffic flow there could be a spur, linking the bypass with the Maine Turnpike.

Elected to three-year seats this month, new councilors Brenda Caldwell and Shonn Moulton took the oath of office from Town Clerk Christina Silberman last week. Caldwell considered her election a mandate from the people. “I’m overwhelmed with the trust and support of the people in this town,” Caldwell said recently. “I’m not letting them down.”

Former councilors Cal Hamblen and Matt Robinson didn’t seek reelection.

The council also has appointed its committee members. Moulton, and Philip Dugas were named to the Finance Committee with Jane Willett, chairwoman; Loveitt, Caldwell and Mike Phinney, chairman, Ordinance committee; Willett, Caldwell and Dugas, chairman, Appointments/Personnel committee; Phinney, Moulton, and Loveitt, chairman, Economic Development/Capital Improvements Committee; Justice, representative to the Greater Portland Council of Governments: Caldwell, ad hoc Representative to the Recreation Advisory Board; and Willett, ad hoc representative to the Cable TV Committee.

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