By Melanie Lekocevic
Capital Region Independent Media
COEYMANS — Engineers have excavated portions of the town hall building to identify the source of mold that is growing in the structure and have estimated prices to fix the problem.
Repairing the drainage and structural problems that led to the mold will cost in the neighborhood of $300,000 to $500,000, with repairs to the interior of the building adding to the price.
Town officials last year approved building a new town hall estimated at $6 million but enough signatures were collected on a petition to force a permissive referendum on the resolution that would allow the cost to go as high as $7 million. Voters in November rejected the new town hall plan.
In late 2022, several town offices were relocated to other sites to make room for the Coeymans Police Department to move from the basement, where the bulk of the mold problem is located, to the ground floor.
“We have a mold issue in our town hall, in particular down in the basement, so we’ve had to relocate some of our offices, hopefully temporarily,” Town Supervisor George McHugh said at the June 22 meeting of the town council. “In the meantime, MJ Engineering has coordinated with us in having some tests dug around the foundation to see where the water is coming in and exactly what condition our foundation is in before we can move forward with a course of action.”
The engineering firm was initially tasked with performing an assessment of the town hall building and based on their findings, they recommended doing “test pits” to check out the structural condition on the south and west sides of the building to determine the status of the block walls and whether there was water seeping into the building.
Project Manager Matt Fueston from MJ Engineering and Land Surveying presented the findings from that excavation project at the June meeting.
“Overall, the excavations showed no major issues with the block wall material and the walls were in relatively good condition,” Fueston said. “There were various locations where the mortar had eroded and that is evidenced by the ability to stick a screwdriver into the wall, to its handle. The wall in its entirety was in good shape.”
The wall’s condition is thought to be due to poor site drainage and stagnating water that collects against the building’s foundation wall and entry stairs on the western side of the building, Fueston said.
The engineers recommended that to alleviate the drainage and mold problems, the town should fully excavate the west and south sides of the building, install an external drainage system and take steps to drain the water. Areas of the block walls would then have to be remortared and rigid foam insulation and waterproofing tar should be installed to prevent future problems, Fueston said.
“Additionally, we recommend an asphalt lip at the southern parking lot to divert water from the building’s foundation,” Fueston added. “Currently, it comes down the road towards the parking lot area.”
Fueston did not have specific costs on the necessary work to remediate the mold problem, but is expected to have a report, including expenses for both planning and construction of the project, at the July meeting of the town board.
McHugh said there were no solid figures for the project yet, but that costs for the exterior work on the building were expected to come in at between $300,000 and $500,000. Fueston said that estimate sounded accurate.
There are also other issues with the interior of the building and the existing HVAC, or heating, ventilation and air conditioning, system, as well as the structure of the basement, that make the building prone to mold, Fueston said.
“There are conditions on the outside with water intrusion, coupled with the existing HVAC system and the compartmentalization of the spaces in the basement — not a lot of airflow through that area, lots of closets, hallways, spaces that just don’t get a lot of air movement,” Fueston said. “Also, you’ve got areas where there are files’ and documents’ storage that are directly adjacent to the block wall that is not insulated on the outside so no air movement, humidity, and you will definitely get mold on the inside of those walls.”
Now that the excavation project has been completed and costs to repair the building are coming in, McHugh wanted to schedule a public hearing to gauge the community’s reaction.
McHugh was a leading proponent of building a new town hall. He said repairing the existing structure would secure the building from mold but would not resolve other issues a new building would solve.
“That doesn’t give us any extra room, doesn’t give us additional space, it doesn’t make us ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant or court compliant,” McHugh said.
Town Councilwoman Marissa Tutay clarified that there would be additional costs on top of the estimated $300,000 to $500,000 to repair the building’s exterior.
“So the outside would be one cost, the inside would be another cost, and then remediation would be an additional cost to what we have to do on the inside? Or is remediation part of the inside work?” Tutay asked.
Fueston responded that the remediation would address the mold problem, but other issues, such as the HVAC system and interior repairs, would be an added cost.
Deputy Town Supervisor Brandon LeFevre said the town would be spending nearly half a million dollars to repair an old building, with additional costs expected to fix the interior.
“So we’ll be looking at close to more like a million (dollars) to fix this old building that was never designed to be a town hall,” LeFevre said.
McHugh said a public hearing would be scheduled for the end of July.
“I think we should have a public hearing to let people see this and understand where they may want their tax dollars to go,” McHugh said.
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