Feb. 20, 2002 – If the Christmas winds seem a little late this year, they are making up for it in vigor. The tarpaulin roof of the old Bernier-Olive Clinic in Frenchtown blew off Tuesday night, along with several wooden supports, a guy wire and a Water and Power Authority line.
The building was designated as the site of a long-planned Frenchtown museum last month in a lease to the Frenchtown Civic Organization approved by the legislature and just signed by the governor. "It's ironic," Henry Richardson, organization president, said, surveying the damage. "We just officially got our signed lease yesterday."
The need for repairs to the building is nothing new. Since Hurricane Marilyn blew the roof off in 1995, the Frenchtown organization has kept the blue tarpaulins supplied by the Federal Emergenc Management Agency atop the structure.
The group is hoping to open the building as a museum by Bastille Day, July 14, Richardson said, and the latest damage won't hinder the plans. "It's nothing," he said. "We were going to take the tarp off anyway."
