KINGSTON CITY SEEKS TO FIX DAMAGE
Kingston considers spending $23,500 to repair part of Uptown canopy
KINGSTON, N.Y. » City aldermen are considering spending $23,500 on engineering work that would be used in the repair of a portion of the Uptown sidewalk canopies they were told is severely damaged and poses a potential hazard.
The Common Council’s Finance and Audit Committee held a special meeting Monday to address the canopy in front of 43-45 North Front St. in Uptown. During that meeting, the committee adopted a resolution authorizing the city to pay C.T. Male Associates of Latham $23,500 to design the repair work for that section of the sidewalk canopy. The committee also adopted a resolution authorizing the city to borrow the money to pay for the design work.
The resolutions must still be adopted by the full council, which meets again Tuesday eve-
ning.
In a letter, Mayor Steve Noble said a number of sections of the sidewalk canopies, known as the Pike Plan, are in significant disrepair.
“While we are vigorously seeking to hold accountable any eligible parties responsible for the state of these structures, we have not yet achieved the legal outcome with which we are seeking,” the mayor wrote in a letter to Common Council President James Noble. He added that the section of canopy at 43-45 North Front St. is “severely damaged
and poses a potential hazard.”
The design work that would be done by C.T. Male is required to make sure the necessary and appropriate repairs are made to the canopy structure, Steve Noble said.
“While each section of the Pike Plan is different, the design work completed for this urgent repair will likely give us insight into future potential costs associated with the repair of other sections of the Pike Plan,” the mayor said.
In September, the Common Council voted to eliminate any new maintenance charges against property owners where the Pike Plan is located. The following month, the council voted to dissolve the commission that oversaw the sidewalk canopies. The Uptown sidewalk
canopies were built in the early 1970s and overhauled during a two-year period beginning in 2011. Since then, several business and property owners have reported damage as a result of drainage problems related to the renovation.
The city has litigation pending over the renovation work.
During Monday’s meeting, the committee went into a closed-door executive session to discuss the Pike Plan and pending litigation. Following that session, Alderman Steve Schabot, DWard 8, somewhat reluctantly made the motion to authorize C.T. Male to perform the design work for the canopy repair.
Schabot said, though, the
canopy was a liability and “God forbid something happens.”
This would not be the first time in recent years the city has paid C.T. Male for work related to the Pike Plan. In April 2016, the council authorized paying the engineering firm $50,000 to conduct further testing of the Pike Plan to determine the source of water damage to the canopies.
In December 2015, the council had agreed to pay C.T. Male up to $48,000 to determine the source of water leaks. That was in addition to $42,000 approved earlier the same year for the firm to conduct a visual inspection and to review the project’s construction documents.