Photo by Lester Smith
The Permanent Building Commission meets with Robert May, left, president of Consulting Engineers Fuss and O’Neill. May is a leading expert in remediating PCB contamination. Clockwise around the table from May: Chairman Joe Sangiovanni, and Commissioners Kevin Goff, Bill Gozzo, and Cathie Ellithorpe. Out of sight are Commissioners Glenn Neilson and Heather Van Deusen, along with Public Works Director John Cloonan. This April 12 meeting was principally devoted to discussing proposals for removing and encapsulating the sources of PCB in Kent Memorial Library.
The 2017-2018 Town budget approved on May 10 with little opposition by a very small fraction of the eligible voters (about two percent) included $408,000 in “Capital Expenditures” for the library. Two thirds of that, $275,000, is for PCB remediation: $200,000 for “sandblasting” as part of the planned ceiling treatment, $25,000 for hazmat testing, and $50,000 for removing and replacing the wall-mounted bookcases to allow planned remediation of the building’s interior walls.
The “sandblasting” item was surprising, as recent meetings of the Permanent Building Commission have favored the less expensive mechanical removal of the suspected PCB-laden coating on the concrete ceilings, and the full cost of this work is not yet known. Public Works Director explained that the work would be better described as “sandblasting/scraping,” as the choice isn’t firm yet. And the amount is very uncertain. One bid received asks $57,500 to scrape the gallery ceiling for the pilot test described in last month’s Observer’s library update. Additional bids for treating the ceiling have not yet been received, and none have been requested for all the ceilings.
Four other library capital items, not PCB related, included $60,000 for “Auditorium renovation” (Building Inspector Ted Flanders had determined, late in the present library renovation, that the auditorium aisles did not meet egress requirements) and $50,000 for “Install two existing bathrooms” at the library. This meant “Update Fixtures” in the old bathrooms, a somewhat puzzling item to appear at this point in the long project. The two remaining items, totaling $18,000, entailed upgrading the library’s work room and in the gallery reinstalling the sink and storage closets that have been removed in preparation for the pilot test.
Lights and electrical wiring in the gallery have also been removed in preparation for the planned pilot test.
First Selectman Melissa Mack explained at the budget meeting that not a single cent beyond the budget would be spent without further authorization from the Town, and ideally with support from other sources. Also, nothing other than for PCB remediation would be spent until that matter is clearly under control.