The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Flooding adds to mounting troubles at aging facility
EAST HAMPTON » The office of the director of finance flooded overnight Wednesday, again raising concerns about the structural integrity of the aging Town Hall.
The so-far unexplained flooding, which damaged several boxes of documents stored on the office floor, was discovered by Administrative Assistant Cathy Sirois at 8 a.m. Thursday. Town Manager Michael Maniscalco said the flooding extended partway up the basement corridor outside Finance Director Jeffrey M. Jylkka’s office.
A professional cleaning service was brought in Thursday to remove the water and attempt to dry out the carpets. Maniscalco estimated the bill for the work could amount to as much as $3,000.
It is at least the third time Jylkka’s office had been hit by flooding and comes some eight months after a blocked drain caused sewage water to flood the adjacent Police Department.
Police were forced to operate out of an oversized motor home for the better part of a week while the carpets were stripped from the building and a new floor was laid in the headquarters.
Just last week, officials had to deal with an outbreak of condensation in the vault in the town clerk’s office, which is located on the first floor of Town Hall. The mounting number of incidents is dispiriting, Manis-
calco said Thursday. “Every time we try to fix something, something else pops up someplace else,” he said.
What’s more, the 70-year-old Town Hall does not meet today’s standards for access by the handicapped. After decades without action, the Town Council has developed a proposal to build a new Town Hall/police station in a mixed-use development roughly a mile east of the present location. A seven-member committee is finalizing plans for the new complex.
Officials hope to have the project ready to be voted on in November.
While the water was flooding Jylkka’s office downstairs Wednesday night, Maniscalco was upstairs meeting with the Planning and Zoning Commission in an effort to win the commission’s approval for the proposed new complex.
Municipal improvements require a Planning Commission review to determine whether the proposed improvements comply with the zoning requirements before they can proceed. The commission gave unanimous approval to the plan, Maniscalco said.