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Saybrook Youth & Family Services Home Fixes Continue

Taking advantage of good weather, town contractors worked alongside a town Public Works crew under Larry Bonin to speed completion of work to upgrade and make safe the Youth & Family Services (YFS) Main Street home. The project, which began in July, is not expected to be completed until October, though agency staff could begin to use the building sooner if it chooses.

Town Facilities Coordinator Dan Moran was on site last week overseeing progress as he has been since the project began. Moran said that, as with many older buildings, there were surprises as work to upgrade the exterior began. There were also opportunities, however, to add important tasks while staying within budget by tapping the town’s Public Works Department crews.

One surprise was the poor condition of the rear entry ramp and the rear stairs. Rather than simply replace them, Bonin and a Public Works crew poured a new concrete ramp and a concrete landing pad for the stairs. Dry stone and rotten wood foundations under a rear shed addition (previously painted red) and the main support wall for a closed-in porch on the south side were replaced with poured-cement posts and concrete blocks. Now the building’s exterior walls are both well-supported and sealed, closing off the rodents’ earlier pathway into the building’s basement.

Before this work could begin, though, lead paint on the building’s siding and features had to be abated. With the siding, this meant removal and proper disposal of the materials. For the painted architectural details like dentil molding at the roof line, this meant painting with a lead-encapsulating paint to seal the surface. By last week, the old siding had been removed and the building’s feature details repainted.

With the siding removed, and the project within budget thanks to tasks done by the Public Works Department, Moran decided to authorize $6,500 to pay for insulation to be blown into the building’s uninsulated exterior walls. Holes were drilled in the siding to provide hose access points and then wooden plugs installed to seal the access holes.

By Aug. 30, several rows of new AZEK siding planks, made of a long-lived PVC material, had already been installed on the building’s north side.

First Selectman Carl Fortuna, Jr., reported on the building project to the Board of Selectmen on Aug. 30.

“The YFS building project is progressing well,” Fortuna said. “The new siding is going up now and the lead abatement work is 95 percent done. We had insulation blown in and we’re doing some minor electrical work.

“I just want to give a shout-out to Larry Bonin. Larry and his crew have done multiple thousands of dollars of work that we couldn’t have predicted,” said Fortuna. “And Dan Moran has coordinated the work. He had multiple crews working there. [This coordination piece] was critical to getting the job done on time and on budget.”

Starting in November 2016, a mold remediation problem led to corrective renovation work at the YFS building that was mainly funded by the town’s insurance carrier. Since YFS staff were already relocated to Town Hall, other tasks were completed to bring the building’s interior staircase, plumbing, and electrical up to code. With the work to upgrade the building’s exterior to fix the foundation issues, abate lead paint, insulate the walls, and install permanent siding, as Selectman Carol Conklin noted, the building’s life has been extended.

“The exterior of the building was a mess. With the new insulation, [the YFS staff is] going to find it’s a lot more comfortable inside,” said Fortuna. “All in all, we’ve spent $48,000 for the interior and $123,000 for the exterior. This is a significant chunk of change, but we never could replicate that space for a $175,000 expenditure.”

The YFS agency staff currently is working out of the lower level of Town Hall. While the building work is underway, some of the agency’s clinical sessions are held in rooms there while others, especially group work, are scheduled for outside spaces.

At press time, the date when the agency staff will be ready to move operations back into the Main Street building had not been set.