Waterford- The principal engineer responsible for a structural survey of Jordan Village firehouse said he believes the building is “repairable.”
Jose-Miguel Albaine of JM Albaine Engineering, LLC was contract consultant for George Torello Engineers, P.C. in Essex, one of two firms responsible for a structural survey of the firehouse. He said that while the roof needs to be reinforced, other fixes were relatively minor.
“In my opinion, the building is repairable,” said Albaine, whose firm inspected the building last spring.
The fate of Jordan firehouse has been up in the air since late 2004 when the fire company temporarily lost its insurance because of a bowing wall in the bay where the fire trucks are stored. CLA Engineers, Inc. in Norwich came in to fix the problem, caused by a sagging beam supporting the roof above the bay. They determined that the problem occurred after a column was removed in the '80s to turn three bays into two.
Meanwhile, the town has turned down several requests from Jordan's Fire Company No. 1 for a new firehouse. The town is also in the process of forming a committee to study the fire service to determine if five firehouses are necessary in Waterford.
The structural survey was commissioned in January 2005 and is still in draft form. First Selectman Daniel Steward said so far the town has paid about $4,000 for the study, half of the total.
“I would have expected this to be done six months ago,” said Steward.
Steward met with engineers this week to discuss discrepancies between the firehouse survey and a building inspector's findings. He planned to send out a construction manager last week to estimate roof repair costs.
Albaine said he is waiting on CLA Engineers' report of their work at the firehouse before he will be ready to submit a final report with his name on it. Barun Basu Associates in New London has been trying to get the report for months to find out what kind of work was done at the firehouse.
“I'm not sure they kept the record because when I called they said, 'We'll look for it.' And that happened twice,” said architect Basu, who also had no luck at the fire department and fire marshal's office.
Neither Fire Chief Michael Smith nor CLA Engineers returned calls for comment last week.
“That lintel beam really needs to be looked at,” Albaine said, calling the structural survey a “diagnosis” rather than an internal investigation.
The report calls for extra shingle layers to be removed from the roof and for additional reinforcement to be added to the roof frame. Albaine said leaks in the roof could be solved with aluminum flashing to prevent water seepage and that drainage problems in the apparatus room could be unclogged and the floor resurfaced.
“Their whole ceiling leaks,” Steward said last week after reading the report. “They haven't bothered to fix the ceiling and the roof.”
He said he wants to make sure the report includes the answers the town was looking for before he will give his stamp of approval and that fixes to the building would be in the town's best interest.
“In my eyes, $2 can be expensive, especially when you're buying a rubber band,” he said.
Albaine, who lives in Waterford, called the firehouse a landmark.
“I love the building,” he said.