By Bill Forry

A Lower Mills based labor union is planning to build a new $3 million headquarters on Adams Street, union officials told a small gathering of abutters at a Tuesday night meeting. The Sheet Metal Workers Local 17 has outgrown its current space on Adams Street, union leaders say, and needs new quarters to accommodate staff and apprentice workers.

The proposed building would be built on the site of the union's current office, using additional residential land acquired earlier this year. An unoccupied single-family home on the site will be rented out after the new office building is completed.

William McDermott, an attorney representing the union, told abutters that the Metal Workers planned to apply for a building permit within the "next week or two." Neighbors learned of the plans just last week from a flier that was dropped door-to-door on the block. McDermott said that elected officials were also briefed on the union's intentions, but some residents in attendance criticized the manner of notification and the short notice of Tuesday's meeting. McDermott said that the meeting was the first in a series of meetings that the union was willing to have with abutters.

The Sheet Metal local has been based in Lower Mills since 1979, and built a large training facility off of Adams Street in 1986. That building, used to teach apprentice workers the sheet metal trade, will continue to be used as a school, according to union business manager Joseph Bergantino.

The union membership includes roughly 3,000 men and women from across New England.

"We've been tripping over each other in the current office," Bergantino told the Reporter.

The proposed building would be set back 15 feet from the curb and rise about 34 feet in the air, according to current plans. The building would include about 18,000 square feet of usable space, with parking in the rear for 28 vehicles. Between 12 and 17 people would typically work in the building, but a regular monthly meeting would draw larger crowds of union members to a basement meeting hall in the proposed building. McDermott said that the project will require approvals from the city's Zoning Board. He estimated that if all permits are granted on schedule, the building could be completed by June 2005.

There were some concerns expressed about the scale and impact of the union hall by nearby residents. McDermott said that further meetings would be held to discuss the concerns, including existing problems posed by apprentice union members who cause parking problems for adjacent property owners, something that one union official acknowledged Tuesday was a persistent and "terrible" problem. He further stated that the union did not intend to acquire any additional land in the village for expansion.

State Representative Marty Walsh, who attended the Tuesday night meeting, said he was waiting for the abutters to take a position on the union's proposal before making any endorsement.

"I think it's good to have a union invest in the community, as long as the abutters are happy with the plan. The [Sheet Metal union] have never said no when I've asked them for anything to help the neighborhood. But I'd like to see the support there (from the abutters) first."

The development comes as the Lower Mills Civic Association remains in a period of hibernation brought on by a lawsuit filed against its leadership in 2002. The civic group - one of the neighborhood's oldest and, formerly, most active group's - remains dormant this fall as its president, Mike Skillin, remains the target of a personal lawsuit brought by disgruntled developer Louis Hadaya.

Walsh Backs Immigrant Drivers in Homeland Bill-

Marty Walsh acknowledges that his first major piece of legislation initiated by his new Homeland Security Committee on Beacon Hill is generating mixed reviews from some quarters this week. Walsh is the co-sponsor of a bill that would allow legal - and illegal - immigrants to obtain a driver's license in the state of Massachusetts. Walsh signed onto the bill, which was initiated by his House allies Eugene O'Flaherty of Charlestown and Anthony Petrucelli of East Boston. The trio argue that immigrants are already on the roads of the state - illegally -and need to be brought onto the tax and insurance rolls, one goal of this new law.

"Some of the anti-immigrant groups are very much opposed to it," Walsh acknowledges. "They're trying to use issue of homeland security, but if someone wants to do that kind of damage, they'll do it.

"It's a sticky issue and I've gotten some people complain to me about it. But there's a lot of people driving around the streeets of Dorchester and East Boston and other neighborhoods right now who aren't licensed or insured. We pay through nose because there's such a high number of uninsured people."

Walsh says that the bill, House 2212, will likely get some further revisions in his Homeland Security committee before it goes to the floor for a vote later this session.