Page 6 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • March 14, 2012 Ridgewood Village officials award $275K reconstruction contract by John Koster Ridgewood’s governing body awarded a $275,000 contract for the masonry reconstruction of the first floor of Ridgewood Village Hall at last week’s council meeting. Completion of the project, which will once again allow senior and teen groups to meet at village hall for social activities, is targeted for August of 2012. Village Engineer Christopher Rutishauser said the reconstruction bid of the Adamo Bros. of Ridgefield was slighter higher than the other bid received, but was “a little better.” The contract with Adamo Bros. will provide for the type of reconstruction that Ridgewood has stipulated: interior masonry walls five feet, four inches high with the vacant places behind the masonry facade back-filled with cement to eliminate the chance of pocketed storm water in case of another flood. Tropical Storm Floyd in 1999 and Hurricane Irene in 2011 both inundated the first floor with more than three feet of dirty water, ruining furniture and destroying the carpets. The entire Ridgewood Village Hall had to be renovated to eliminate mold damage after the 1999 flood, and the police headquarters, flooded out at a cost of $1 million, had to be relocated to the Pease Branch Library for six years. The first floor was essentially simplified during the reconstruction, but Hurricane Irene once again flooded the ground floor, destroying sheetrock, carpets, and furniture. The restrooms, however, were brought back into service simply by hosing them down and letting them dry out because they had masonry interior walls and floor drains. The council and engineering department then developed the concept of making the whole first floor flood-proof by renovation with interior masonry wall, tile floors, and floor drains. Councilman Paul Aronsohn asked Rutishauser if he was sure the contractor would comply with Ridgewood’s plans to have a municipal building capable of withstanding future floods without serious damage. When the engineer said the bid contract would comply, Aronsohn joined the rest of the council in approving the contractor’s bid. Mayor Keith Killion and Deputy Mayor Thomas Riche, interfacing with Rutishauser, optimistically noted that the council’s decision not to use sheetrock and repainting for the lower interior wall would bring the cost of restoration of the interior walls to about $135,000 -- if the cost of the sheetrock and painting were deducted from the total cost of $275,000. The removal of destroyed carpet and sheetrock and general cleanup has already cost Ridgewood about $95,000. Some additional smaller repair expenses are anticipated. The council essentially shrugged off proposals a few weeks ago to raise the exterior detached wall around the building by three feet because, as Mayor Killion pointed out, this would make the building look “like a prison” and would not eliminate the problem of the gap in the wall to allow barrier-free and general entry to the first floor. In a separate but related issue, Rutishauser and the council discussed plans to apply to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for a grant for $343,000 to dredge Ridgewood’s section of the Ho-Ho-Kus Brook, a major source of the parking lot flooding at Ridgewood Village Hall. The total cost is estimated at $422,000 and the council members felt that the dredging was worth doing if the village could obtain substantial outside support. Rutishauser said the dreding could not be undertaken during the trout season because the silt that would be stirred up when the sandbars were removed is bad for the trout. “Trout season is really over by July, so we can started in late July or August,” he said. The Ridgewood Village Council decided to save some money on laptop computers that would have taken one step toward rendering the council paperless, but carried a high price tag. At a previous work session meeting, council members discussed an option to buy laptops so council members could save some printing fees and paper by having the council agendas updated electronically instead of Council acts on computer enhancement printed. Council members liked the concept, but disliked the $87,000 cost. At last week’s work session, the council dropped the laptops from the consent agenda. The council, however, left a $50,000 item for safetyrelated police laptops on the consent agenda and adopted it unanimously. The contract went to CDW Government, Inc. in Chicago. J. KOSTER