A building that in many ways defines Apponaug is transitioning to a new purpose while another that also has a long association with the village is soon to be reduced to rubble.

On Tuesday with city AAA Notheast officials gathered outside what remains of the Apponaug Mill known as the Sawtooth Building, Mayor Frank Picozzi said city employees will get the office space they need while providing taxpayers a single location for city services.

When renovations are completed, which now is not projected until next spring because of breaks in the supply chain and shortage of materials, the former mill will house City Hall Annex offices now located in the former Buttonwoods Community Center and the closed Randall Holden School.  Under a renewable lease, the city will pay AAA $447,000 a year with modest increases after the first year for 15 years. Annually, what the city is paying under an agreement approved by the City Council early this summer is less than what it would have had to pay in bonding costs to build a new annex.

AAA bought the building at auction from the state with the intent of relocating its service office on Centerville Road, using it as a call center and preserving a part of Apponaug’s history. The pandemic brought about a change as employees worked from home and AAA scuttled thoughts of a call center. As timing would have it, Picozzi, then fresh on the job, was looking for options to the existing annex offices.

Tuesday morning, R. Stephen Manty, AAA executive vice president, called the city a great partner and the agreement a win-win. Manty said architect plans for the layout of the building interior have been completed. The AAA service center will be located on the ground floor in the southwest corner of the former mill. City offices will be located on both the first and second floors with a bridge to the second floor from the embankment and parking lot off Greenwich Avenue across from Dunkin’ Donuts. Overall, Manty said there would be parking for 120 vehicles.

Closed more than three years ago when a water pipe burst during a cold snap, the former City Hall Annex, which had been added to over the years, is slated to meet with the wrecking ball any day now said Picozzi. He believes utility disconnections are all that is holding things up. He has the planning department working on a proposal for the site that he hopes will be ready for council review shortly.

The fate of the historic Greene Memorial House, the red building opposite the Cumberland Farms and part of the AAA property, remains uncertain. Manty said AAA had hopes of using the house built in the early 1800s, but it is in deplorable condition. He doesn’t see moving it as an option and restoring it would be prohibitively expensive.

“It is in terrible shape. It’s unsafe,” said Picozzi, who has been through the building. “It can’t be moved. It wouldn’t make it.”

Picozzi noted what becomes of the building is up to AAA. According to research done by the late Warwick historian Don A’Mato, the house was given by Francis Greene, the son of Gen. George Sears Greene, to the Rhode Island Episcopal Convention to be used as a rectory for St. Barnabas Church and preserved as a memorial to his father. It was later owned by the Red Cross and then by the late Russell Howard.