by Mike Brosky
It has been a very busy spring and summer for the Co-op Building Committee. The Committee had not met regularly for many months during the time before and after the acquisition of the Route 2 location, but began to meet again in February of this year. Shortly after restarting regular meetings, we were made aware of a fire marshall’s inspection of the Rt. 2 location, which state law requires before the sale of any public building. This report served as a primary focus for the remainder of the year as we dug into the findings and quickly started to make plans to address them. Some of the findings included electrical violations, like an insufficient number of lighted exit signs and an inadequate number of outlets, leading to the over-use of extension cords. Other findings were more focused on safety, like lack of hand railings and safety gates.
The first order of business was to obtain quotes from electricians. The staff reached out to a few different contractors, and the Committee reviewed and provided input on which contractor to choose. While the electrical work was ongoing in the late spring and early summer, members of the Committee began tackling some of the other findings. One of the first was the missing safety gates and handrails. Barry Walz, who joined the Committee this year, quickly made in his woodshop a gate for the top of the stairs leading to the basement. Make sure to check out the gate next time you’re in the store—it’s very nicely done!
Barry also tackled other items cited in the inspection report, like adding a handrail to the stairs leading up to the office, and installing a fire-rated door on the basement furnace room. In fact, the furnace room was a major focus for the fire inspector: there were findings for insufficient layers of sheetrock (only 1 layer was installed at the time of the inspection) and the room was improperly vented. Joe John, a long-time Building Committee volunteer, led the effort to bring the furnace room into compliance. After installing a second layer of sheetrock and painstakingly filling in gaps around various pipe penetrations, a vent to the exterior was added along with spackle for all the joints. This work plus the addition of the fire-rated door brought the furnace room into compliance.
The Co-op staff, led by David Ertel and Michael Hoffman, took care of many other items cited by the inspector, such as removing extension cords and adding bathroom signage. By doing many walk-throughs, they made sure the store was ready for re-inspection by the fire marshall in September.
Along with addressing the findings in the fire marshall’s report, the Committee supported the Co-op in other ways. We advised on the HVAC installation this summer and assisted where we could with building platforms for the compressors and removing brush behind the store.
On the horizon is deciding how to deal with the roof over the grocery section. This past spring it was discovered that it has numerous leaks, made worse over time by ice dams. The Committee is working with Jeanine and the Board to determine whether a repair can be made in the short term in order to allow for a more permanent solution to happen in the spring. Stay tuned for an update in the next newsletter.
The members of the Building Committee are
- Mike Brosky
- Barry Walz
- Joe John
- David Ertel
- Kyle Cheney