Residents weigh in on North Attleborough mill at risk of collapse

NORTH ATTLEBOROUGH, Mass. (WLNE) — The owners of a historic North Attleborough mill building have until today to fix several safety issues or the town will move forward with a demolition of part of the building.

Parts of the road surrounding the Webster Mill have already been shut down due to the unsafe nature of the state of the building.

Broadway between Bank Street and Richards Avenue are now closed. The town says there is a high risk of a partial building collapse due to recent storms, with Thursday’s strong winds only raising those concerns.

The mill, which is 126 years old, has been part of the North Attleborough community, but residents have long been aware of the danger.

“I’ve been living in North Attleborough now for 18 years, and I’ve owned my house behind here for 16 years, and this has been falling apart for years. And I’ve been worried, it’s only a matter of time, somebody’s going to die in here. Especially a kid,” said resident Michael Perron. 

“You know I was talking to my dad, who has been here since the late 80’s, and this is how he remembers it too. So it’s always been like this, it’s always been an issue. And like I said, we’ve read articles constantly about partial collapse, this and that, and it just being a huge danger. And that’s exactly how I remember it,” said resident Jared Garay-Pietrella. 

The North Attleborough Town Manager tells ABC 6 that these developments come after an inspection of the building determined it could collapse into the street at any time.

With public safety the main concern, the town could be forced to look into a demolition of the Webster Mill.