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A new office-building-turned-boarding-house on Bartlett Street is doubling in size.

Owner Rick LaChapelle received a zoning change last fall to turn 230 Bartlett St. into a boarding house, according to city records. It had been offices for Tri-County Mental Health and has been empty for more than two years.

“The need for rooms is great,” LaChapelle wrote to the city at the time. “I currently receive from 10 to 20 phone calls per day from people looking for rooms, and I most often have no availability. Currently, 75 of the lodgers staying in our rooming houses have jobs and are productive members of our city. Of the other 25, most are disabled and pay with their disability checks.”

Twenty-eight rooms were initially created at 230 Bartlett St. The address received a permit last month for a $100,000 project turning more offices into 29 additional rooms.

This story was originally published in The Buzz: KFC/Taco Bell makeover, groceries-to-go coming to Auburn Walmart. Have a Buzzable tip? Contact staff writer Kathryn Skelton at 207-689-2844 or kskelton@sunjournal.com.