Pipe Bursts, Floods Basement of Superintendent's Office

A pipe that broke in the superintendent's office on Friday morning, flooded the basement and has left behind an as yet unknown amount of water damage.

According to a comment left by School Board candidate Gary Krupp on his candidate profile, a short time ago, the following was shared with him by School Board Chairman Chris Ortega this morning:

"A pipe burst overnight in the SAU central office (green building). Two inches of water in the lower level (basement offices). Cleanup and damage assessment in progress. The Town Planning Board was correct in upgrading the new building as urgent."

Read an update here on the situation at the Superintendent's Office.

Calls have been placed to Superintendent Marge Chiafery and Maintenance Director Tom Touseau regarding the pipe burst, but have not yet been returned.

A secretary in the superintendent's office did confirm the pipe burst and that work is underway to clean up the water.

This is the second time since November that one of the office buildings located in ranch-style homes adjacent to the high school has suffered significant water damage.

In November, a large portion of the roof blew off the special services building (the blue house) during Hurricane Sandy. The building suffered significant water damage and required a new roof be put on the house as well as replacing walls ceilings and flooring inside. The basement, which was used as office space, has remained unused as offices since then and is only being used as storage.

On Tuesday, voters are being asked to approve a new central office building to be constructed on a small parcel of land between the high school and Mastricola Elementary School.

The the $1.5 million proposal is for a 9,800 square-foot building that would replace the 40-year-old green and blue houses that currently serve as space for the school district personnel to conduct business – spaces that school board members, planning and building committee members and even town planning board members call inadequate to serve the district's needs. The buildings lack space, privacy, have mold mitigation problems and functionality issues.

School board members and planning and building committee Chairman Rich Hendricks have said it would cost more money to renovate existing space in James Mastricola Upper Elementary School to make it suitable for the special services office, and it only solves half the problem, as it doesn't address the superintendent's office.

Money has been earmarked for next year to handle some maintenance and repairs to the buildings if article 2 fails, however the consensus among board members is that putting more money into these buildings is not a wise use of district money.

Patch will bring you more information on today's pipe burst as it becomes available.

Read more about the building project. Each candidate for school board shared their thoughts on the project in the below candidate profiles:

• Central Office Consolidation Plan (from the school district website)
• Voters to Decide on $1.5M Project for New SAU Offices
• Letter: Vote Yes on School Warrant Article 2