Village Hall Cleanup Cost Could Approach $200K

Damage to could total around $200,000 with construction lasting the next several months, according to officials.

The water level at Village Hall rose to about four feet on Sunday, which damaged furniture, equipment and supplies, Village Manager Ken Gabbert said in an e-mail. The village had placed barricades around the entrance, but they were no match for the rushing water from the nearby Ho-Ho-Kus Brook.

Gabbert said he'd have more concrete cleanup figures ready for the council at its September 7 meeting, but he's currently projecting the bulk of the construction cleanup to be done by the end of the year. The work will include a "full first floor demolition and repair," he said.

"In terms of the estimate, they're probably going with a higher number  . . . until they open up the walls to see how much work is needed," speculated Councilwoman Bernadette Walsh, who saw the aftermath of Village Hall on Wednesday. Still, $200,000 is not out of the realm of possibility, she said.

The first floor, which houses the youth and senior centers, were swamped with polluted flood water and requires remediation.

Scores of meetings are held at both centers throughout the year, but until work is completed many will have to be relocated.

"We're going to have to use the Stable, other buildings and the rooms on the upper floors of Village Hall to accommodate the commitments we have made," Mayor Keith Killion said in a phone interview Wednesday night.

Village Hall was rebuilt in 2005 after Ridgewood watched the costly effects of having its main municipal building smack dab in the middle of a flood way. When Village Hall was finally rebuilt, the taxpayer tally came to about $9 million, considerably over the initial projected costs.

The entire first floor, the site of the old police headquarters, was destroyed in Floyd's fury in September 1999. Many records were destroyed; the ones that were saved had been sent to New York to be dried in a freezer. No records were lost in the wake of Irene, and the police, now on the second floor, did not lose communications systems at any point.

Officials say the council will have to make emergency appropriations for storm damage and will also apply for FEMA aid.

In light of recent news reports that FEMA would be especially stingy in how much money it doled out to Irene-related damage, Walsh said she wasn't especially worried. Unlike some municipalities and states that will have large infrastructure project requests, Ridgewood's claims will likely be fairly minimal, all things considered.

"We have a great crew and they've done a lot of the work themselves," she added.

Workers were seen Wednesday ripping out sheet rock with face masks, scrubs and gloves, passing a broken piano that lay on its side in the James Ten Hoeve Plaza.

Still covered in a brown film of dirt, the destruction was perhaps a reminder of more than just nature's fury. And the village may just have to get used to it.

"It's a natural occurrence," said Killion. "It was a big storm with a lot of water. It's just unfortunate the building is where it is."

Deputy Mayor Tom Riche was a councilman when he voted to rebuild Village Hall in the early part of the decade. By the time the project was finished, his term was up.

He said the project plan had been to keep less important items on the bottom floor knowing flooding could have been an issue. Still, this was no normal flood, he said.

"You have to remember this was a 100-year flood," he remarked, adding that Village Hall has fared well with smaller storms. Even with door jams the water was just too much, he said.

With more development and impervious surface coverage, this may not be an isolated occurrence.

"You keep blacktopping the earth, we're going to be faced with more flooding," said Riche.