City senior center in dire need of roof repairs
WOONSOCKET – After long coping with drips, puddles and periodic mop-ups that had to be outsourced to a disaster cleanup company, the Senior Center is finally in line for a new roof.
As discussed at a recent workshop, the City Council was expected to award a $261,400 contract for the job to a Pawtucket company last night.
The Patrick J. McKenna Roofing Company’s offer was the lowest of three bids, but officials aren’t certain costs won’t rise until workers start peeling back the layers of the existing roof.
As City Inspector Tom Koback told members of the council, “The roof is old and it’s taking on water. We’re afraid there’s going to be rot underneath if we wait any longer. There may be some there. We don’t know but the longer you wait the more expensive it’s going to be.”
Ultimately, said Koback, the problem is that the roof surpassed its
projected lifespan years ago. “Basically what you have is a 20-year roofing system that’s 31 years old,” he said.
Koback, who’s examined the roof on multiple occasions during the last several years, says it’s equipped with a drainage system that’s supposed to channel water off the surface, but it’s not working properly. So water is pooling up in places that pose a risk to other infrastructure, including an HVAC system that was recently replaced. He said that every time he climbs up there to take a look at the roof “it’s a pond.”
On an increasingly frequent basis, the water is filtering through the roof and into the building. Human Resources Director Linda Plays told the council that a room where workers box up deliveries for the Senior Center’s sprawling Meals on Wheels Program recently sustained extensive water damage. The city had to call ServePro, a disaster remediation company, to clean up the mess. The meal delivery operations were temporarily relocated to another portion of the building, so there was no disruption in the provision of meals to hundreds of shut-ins and homebound elderly people in the region.
Public Works Director Steve D’Agostino said the bids appear competitive, since he sampled the market for the job in 2015 and costs at that time appeared substantially higher. He received a number of unofficial quotes that ranged from $285,000 to $345,000.
After a former request for proposals that took place more recently, the city received three offers that were all within roughly $20,000 of each other, with McKenna Roofing tendering the lowest. The job calls for the complete demolition and replacement of the roughly 11,800-square foot roof atop the 84 Social St. building.
“We’re just at a point now where it’s leaking profusely,” said D’Agostino.
The city intends to cobble together a budget for the project by tapping several funding sources that were originally targeted for other needs, including the federal Community Development Block Grant and the Public Works Building Improvements line item in the budget. Planning Director Joel Mathews told officials last week that the city could redirect more than $100,000 from the CDBG budget to offset the cost of the project. The city receives about $2 million a year in CDBG funds from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development – resources the city has used to pay for everything from emergency housing forthe homeless to fire trucks.
Located roughly opposite the post office on Social Street, the Senior Center is owned by the city, but it’s leased for a nominal sum to Senior Services Inc., which operates all the programs. The nonprofit organization was established in 1975, offering entertainment, education, wellness programs and a host of other perks for older residents in the Greater Woonsocket area. The existing senior center building was erected in 1978, according to the city’s property database.