By Andreas Yilma Citizen’s News
NAUGATUCK — The Board of Mayor and Burgesses unanimously approved at its May meeting to enter into an agreement with Sullivan Bros. Remodeling out of Wolcott for external repairs to the Naugatuck Fire Department headquarters at 41 Maple St.
The $125,000 for the repairs are coming from the capital improvement fund. Officials are finalizing the contract and are hopeful the work can start soon, Controller Allyson Bruce said.
“We had a very thorough analysis of the building done by an extremely competent company and I was very impressed with their work and their approach to the project,” Mayor N. Warren “Pete” Hess said during the meeting.
Deputy Fire Chief Ken Hanks said the original building was constructed in 1909 and was renovated in 1991 but there were a lot of parts that were not done.
There are couple of external areas that need repair which include windows with wooden frames and the wooden trim around the roof which are rotting and causing various leaks.
The roof itself is fine, Hanks added.
“We’re not getting flooded but there’s water seeping into the building,” Hanks said.
Hanks said the leaks occur whenever there is heavy rain.
“We can’t do any repairs on the inside until you stop the water from coming in,” Hanks said.
Hanks said it’s important to preserve the historic building.
“Once you get water in the building it starts attacking other things in the building such as any other wood will start rotting and you can also start developing mold,” Hanks said. “We don’t’ have that problem yet but we don’t want to start developing that problem.”
Deputy Mayor Robert A. Neth said this project has been talked about for the last two or three years.
“This is basically going to maintain the exterior of the building to keep the water out and so that we can do whatever work we do inside won’t get damaged and I think this is the first phase of a few phases that need to be addressed for that particular building,” Neth said. “It has to be done.”
