Ridgewood January 18, 2012 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • Page 3 Council discusses timetable for village hall restoration by John Koster The Ridgewood Council has disclosed a tentative timetable for the renovation of the first floor of Ridgewood Village Hall, the space that had accommodated the senior citizen and youth activities until Hurricane Irene flooded the building in the summer of 2011. Fielding questions from Highlights in Leisure Time President Donald Liebreich, Deputy Mayor Thomas Riche said the council expects to have bid specifications ready by March 16. Riche said work should begin once a bid was accepted, and that work could be completed some time between June and August. Riche and Village Manager Ken Gabbert qualified the schedule by adding that the first round of bids might not produce an acceptable proposal, and a second round or even subsequent negotiations, could follow. Contractor delays, while not anticipated, are also possible. Liebreich, who said he has 50 years of experience in construction contracting, pointed out that it is extremely inconvenient for the senior citizens who belong to HILT to have no regular venue for programs. He urged that construction be expedited. Mayor Keith Killion said he understood that both seniors and youths have been inconvenienced by the protracted planning for a comprehensive restoration of the first floor. He added that he and the council want to see the job done right this time, and are responsible to all the village’s taxpayers. “This is a big project...footing, design. We have to get it right this time,” Mayor Killion said. “The money does concern us, because it’s taxpayers’ money.” The construction, Killion said, would be masonry, rather than standard or impermeable sheetrock, and the floors would be fitted with drains as the floors in the first floor restrooms had been fitted with drains before the floods, so that, after a flood, the first floor would only need to be hosed down and allowed to dry before it could be used again. Mayor Killion and the council members noted that the restrooms survived the brief, thigh-deep flood of dirty water, but the sheetrock facings of the rest of the first floor were totally ruined and have since been stripped away, revealing three feet of rubble-stone or cement block wall beneath. Furniture, a pool table, and a piano were also damaged beyond repair. In 1999, Tropical Storm Floyd flooded out the ground- floor police station at the estimated cost of about $1 million, and led to relocation of police headquarters to the Pease Library for the next six years. Some flooding also occurred during an interim storm. At last week’s meeting, the council approved commissioning the plans and specifications for the restoration project, as prepared by the village engineering department, with masonry and drains rather than sheetrock. Ridgewood voted at the same meeting to retain the architectural firm of RSC Architects in Cliffside Park for a fee of $12,500. The firm will provide plans for competitive bids and will also remain on the job until the work is completed. The council was praised by a dozen residents who live near Ho-Ho-Kus Brook for Ridgewood’s work to clear and dredge Zabriskie Ditch, formerly a waterway that connected Ho-Ho-Kus Brook to the area along Franklin Turnpike which has, in recent years, silted up and increased flooding in a number of residents’ yards and basements. The residents thanked the council for sending two or three Ridgewood employees and a skip-loader to clean out about 90 percent of the Zabriskie Ditch, working as far up the ditch as the skip-loader could handle.