Race Against Cold Weather—

Officials Opt For Temporary Boiler For Canaan House

By John Voket

Faced with a rapidly approaching fall and winter, Newtown First Selectman Herb Rosenthal and members of the Ad-Hoc Fairfield Hills Management Committee agreed to buy some time by pursuing a temporary heating solution while taking other steps to ensure Canaan House remains comfortable and user-friendly for town employees who work there once the weather turns cold.

The committee conducted a special meeting last Thursday, August 26, to continue discussions and review options for staff members who were forced to endure last winter’s chill with nothing more than temporary space heaters after the building’s boiler blew up.

The options Mr Rosenthal and committee members were reviewing included the possibility of relocating personnel to either temporary commercial office space in town, or the installation of modular offices on the Fairfield Hills campus to house staff until a new, expanded town hall facility becomes a reality.

Ad-Hoc committee chairman John Reed said, unfortunately, the quickly approaching heating season will not allow enough time to research, conduct bidding, construct, and install modular offices. And a quick assessment of available relocation space in town revealed that any appropriately sized location would still have to be equipped and outfitted for office use, at what he estimated would be significantly higher cost to taxpayers than the expense to temporarily address concerns at Canaan House.

Mr Reed also clarified that there was no appropriate space elsewhere on the campus for staff to go.

“There’s really no other place that would cost less to occupy, than it would cost to fix this building,” he said of Canaan House. Mr Reed said the town would have to suffer the expense of providing a short-term heating solution for the building, along with professionally abating standing water and its residue from the basement.

Maria DeMarco, from the management contractor DeMarco, Miles and Murphy, said even the short-term occupancy of the building will require a number of accommodations. She said a team of heating engineers who visited the campus recently suggested several measures that could save much of the $350,000 estimated expense to relocate an existing boiler from elsewhere on campus, integrate it into the existing Canaan House infrastructure, and to provide enough fuel oil for an average winter heating season.

Mr Rosenthal and Mr Reed agreed that the best temporary solution would be to bring in an emergency boiler from a company in Pennsylvania that provides this type of emergency equipment to hospitals and other government facilities that cannot be without heat.

Ms DeMarco estimated it could take as little as a week for the company to outfit the building with a temporary exterior boiler. She stated the month-to-month cost would be $5,500 with a one-time $3,600 transportation fee that covers both drop-off and pickup.

Another challenge would be to rezone the extensive plumbing infrastructure to provide maximum heat to areas where people work, Ms DeMarco said, while maintaining enough heat elsewhere in the facility to ensure pipes do not freeze during the colder winter months.

“All the engineers said it is feasible to isolate areas to be heated,” she said.

“This buys us time as an intermediate solution,” Mr Rosenthal replied. “This could potentially get us through until spring, when we have a more definitive idea about a new town hall or until we know more about the options for modulars or commercial office space.”

In the week between the committee’s latest regular meeting and the August 26 special meeting, Mr Rosenthal also explored the possibility of using the former Grand Union building off Queen Street. But he faced similar challenges when reviewing other existing commercial spaces.

“I’m not convinced any of the existing space in town will work,” he said. “It’s all raw space and would cost about $50 per square foot to build out for office use.”

In preliminary conversations with a regional provider of leased modular space, Mr Rosenthal was told the best estimate for installation would be at least two months, “…but three to four months is more likely,” he said.

After reviewing the costs to relocate the existing boiler, the committee decided the most economic solution would be to rent an emergency boiler on a month-to-month basis as needed.

“It seems the most cost effective idea,” Mr Rosenthal said. “[the emergency boiler] is designed to be housed outside, and is completely environmentally contained.”

Once the new heating system is established, a more careful examination of the long-term viability of Canaan House would be conducted, he said.

“If we can’t develop a long-term interest in using the building, if there is no end user, it will be demolished,” Mr Rosenthal said.

In the short-term, Ms Demarco’s other priorities include the renovation of the handicapped access on the north side of the building. “It’s unconscionable that people have to come in to that area,” she said. A new ramp in front of the building with an automatic or power assisted door may be in the offing, she said.

Ms Demarco also plans to have offices and common areas painted, and will keep expenses down by using town employees or volunteers instead of contractors for the work. “It will be a big improvement, but not very expensive,” she said. “If we buy the materials, we may even be able to get community groups to help.”

Other items to be addressed are the cleaning of gutters to minimize further water intrusion between the walls, and the possible spot repairs of leaking areas of the Canaan House roof.