SANFORD – The Sanford Vet Center remains closed to in-person visits

The building’s owner is disputing an assessment from the Veterans Administration that the center’s building is structurally unsound.

“This has nothing to do with the engineering of the building, I don’t believe,” said Joe Sevigny, who owns the building the center leases at 628 Main St.

On Thursday morning, the center’s main building remained closed, and a notice on the center’s website told those seeking services that the building was closed “for the safety of you and our staff.”

A mobile service center was parked in the center’s parking lot Thursday. A worker in the mobile center declined to comment.

On Tuesday, Peter Kasperowicz, press secretary for the U.S. Veterans Administration in Washington said the building was closed following a May 8 visit by inspectors from the administration’s Togus VA Medical Center.

According to Kasperowicz, the inspectors determined the building was “no longer structurally sound,” and that the VA was closing the center to in-person visits until it could relocate.

But Sevigny said that doesn’t make sense. He acknowledged that sometime last year, it was discovered that the building’s back corner had begun to sag. Sevigny’s father, Lionel, built the building back in 2012, and an architect told Joe Sevigny that it was likely the structure was built on property that might have been a landfill more than a century ago.

“Basically, he didn’t dig deep enough to get rid of whatever was in the back corner of the building,” Sevigny said of his father.

Sevigny insisted, however, that the problem was already resolved. He said he had contractors shore up the back corner “over the winter,” months before the Togus inspectors visited.

The only recent problem Sevigny was aware of, he said, was a recent complaint that employees at the center were smelling an odor that resembled insecticide.

Sevigny said he sent workers in to test the air quality in the building, and “everything tested out fine.”

Sevigny’s company, 7E Properties, owns eight properties in Sanford, including the Veterans Center building. He said he’s never had a problem like this in any building he owns before.

According to the VA, all of the center’s services remain available. Visitors may still speak with staff at the center’s mobile unit in the parking lot. Services are also available virtually and by phone.