Campus Safety is delighted to have moved recently from its problematic quarters in Grafton House to renovated and more spacious offices in Keddy House, right next door. Amanda Warman, director of Campus Safety, was so enthusiastic about saying “goodbye” to Grafton that she operated the wrecking ball.

In frugal KSC fashion, useful parts of the old building were salvaged, and the structure was put to good service before it was razed. Grafton House invited the City of Keene’s fire department in for some valuable professional training. “It is not very common to have a local building and all of its components provided to our members for the purposes of carrying out realistic training scenarios and fire ground evolutions,” reported a spokesman for the fire team. This unique training worked thanks to the coordination of Campus Safety and the demolition team from Physical Plant.

Bill Rymes, KSC’s Plumbing Supervisor, salvaged the boiler from Grafton for future heating needs on campus. This efficient boiler has years of useful life and will find a home in one of the College’s small buildings Bill worked with the demolition crew to safely remove the boiler from the site.

What was so bad about Grafton? Just ask Amanda Warman: “Space planning studies conducted at two different times indicated we had about 30% of the space we needed. Staff and students were working in hallways and what used to be closets. Keddy House gives us four times the space we had in Grafton.” Also, Grafton wasn’t insulated, had holes in the walls—the wall was coming off of the emergency staircase—and didn’t have access for people with disabilities.

The College is using the Grafton space for much needed visitor parking.