The first part of a long-awaited roof replacement on Cohoes City Hall is now complete.
Inside City Hall Monday in a driving rain, New York State Assemblyman John McDonald, a former Cohoes mayor, said the repairs being reimbursed by $500,000 in State and Municipal Facilities Grants were long overdue.
“Days like today were days I always dreaded coming to work. If you listen carefully, in the treasurer's office, you could hear some rendition of your favorite tune as water was leaking into the treasurer's office. Yes, probably since the mid-1990s, the roof here at City Hall needed to be replaced. In all candor, we just didn't have the resources. The money wasn't there,” McDonald said.
As the building is National Register-listed, the state Historic Preservation Office contributed $500,000, an additional $250,000 came from the state Dormitory Authority, and the rest came from the state LED streetlight savings program, to completely fund the $1.8 million project.
Mayor Bill Keeler, a fellow Democrat, says it follows through on a campaign promise.
“We got it done in just under four years, which I'm pretty proud of. And when I say we, a lot of the heavy lifting was done by the city planner, Joe Seman-Graves. Thank you, Joe. And you know, in consultation with our city engineer, Garry Nathan. Thank you, Garry. But it was really conversations I had with John McDonald that brought it across the finish line,” Keeler said.
Keeler says more projects are also in progress:
“We got 330 windows we're working on replacing, and we're gonna get that done in the next four years, right, Joe? Yeah, for sure. It needs a new HVAC system,” Keeler said.
McDonald says this project has been a success.
“Quite frankly, all the hard work’s done right now, it's a matter of getting the bills and things will flow. They're flowing already. When the City Comptroller actually tells me they've already been reimbursed on what they submitted in timely manner, one, it's rare, two, it's good,” McDonald said.
City Hall is a contributing property to the Downtown Cohoes Historic District, which Daniel Mackay, Deputy Commissioner for Historic Preservation, says unlocked the state funding.
He says with nearly 100 applications statewide for grant funding through Parks and between $6 and $8 million dollars to allot, the state has to be selective.
“Once a contract is signed to receive our funds, in particular, we put a covenant on the property. So we will be monitoring the preservation investments in this in this property going forward for 23 years. So we have we, you know, we are married, we in Cohoes are married at this point, and what will hopefully be a continuing and long relationship to do right by this building,” Mackay said.
Mackay says an announcement will be made on the second phase later this year.
City Engineer Garry Nathan says refurbishing the city hall roof was a complicated process, starting with engineers and plans that are in line with a building’s historical significance.
“After that, we go on out to bid, we get a reputable contractor, we set a schedule and then we get the project done. We do reporting, we hopefully have a very good relationship with the contractor,” Nathan said.
John Lesko is with the Garland Company, the contractor the city employed.
“We did some restoration and some repair work. This was really the first big ticket item that we were able to help them get funded through all of our investigation, our research, things that we helped put together along with CT Male Associates, who was the architect, and working directly with the city,” Lesko said.
Lesko says slate work is different than a modern asphalt roof:
“There's a lot of copper and metal detail work. The other part is, being historic, we had to match paint, we had to work with a lot of cornices and windowsills and things like that, because we can't change- ultimately, we have to make the building waterproof. But we can't change the overall look of the building,” Lesko said.
Most of the slate in the area comes from Whitehall.
Lesko says around 100,000 square feet of slate went on this part of the roof, and adds there was more than just new slate needed, including underlayment, some roof decking, and sistering a few rafters together.
“There are two pins at the top that actually drill through the slate, and then you hang the slate on those nails. The next slate overlaps the top of that slate and covers those nail holes,” Lesko said.
The weight of each tile keeps the next ones down.
