The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
WATER UNDER THE BRIDGE
Peeling the onion: Broken pipe causes flooding; asbestos found in ceiling tiles On the road: Several employees have been displaced as damage is being assessed
NORRISTOWN >> The Municipal Hall flood happened on a Sunday, Crandall Jones recalled.
“I got a call that water flooded in the finance department and down to the police department,” noted the Norristown administrator about the incident that occurred two weeks ago. “A pipe in the heating unit on the third floor broke and the water and the cooling fluid in the system was blowing out in the building. We had to close down the finance department and a section of the police department, including the police chief’s office got flooded. The building was built in 1972 or something like that and there hasn’t been a lot of capital maintenance being done so it was inevitable that things are going to start breaking.”
The entire finance department was relocated to other offices in the building at 235 E Airy St., while the damage was being assessed and repaired, Jones said.
“The finance department and about six people in the police department have been displaced while the work is going on.”
Trailers in the parking lot are currently housing Chief Mark Talbot and several other officers, Jones explained.
“If you want to see the chief you have to go out to the trailer. Servepro is doing all the remediation in the building to get things back up to speed.” There are no local obituaries in today’s newspaper.
No time frame had been given for completion of repairs, Jones noted.
“When you start peeling back the onion you find things like, ‘oh the ceiling tile’s made of asbestos too.’ You have to do all of that kind of remediation because things got stirred. Servpro has been working night and day.”
For more information on which departments may be closed during the renovation, call (610) 2728080.