Public Employee Press

DC 37 Headquarters
Building repairs on track

By GREGORY N. HEIRES

Union officials expect DC 37 headquarters to reopen in July, when the massive damage done by Hurricane Sandy has been repaired and the site is safe for members and staff.

"With construction projects, there can always be delays or last-minute problems," said Ralph Pepe, manager of the 10-story building at 125 Barclay St. in Lower Manhattan, "but right now we are on schedule for returning to the building in stages, beginning in July."

DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts has overseen the restoration of the building, meeting regularly at the site with Associate Directors Oliver Gray and Henry Garrido, Pepe and Superintendent Al Locascio, conducting walking tours as the project proceeded and receiving progress reports on the demolition, construction, electrical and elevator work. Gray and Garrido have reduced delays by working with city agencies, such as the Dept. of Buildings, to remove some roadblocks.

Workers installed new floors and walls in the basement and on the ground floor. The principal outstanding tasks include elevator repairs, installing a new electrical system and repairing the telephone system and moving it from the basement to a higher floor as a precaution against future flooding of the phone banks.

Worse than 9/11

Sandy's high winds and the rise of the nearby Hudson River caused extensive flooding in downtown Manhattan and devastated many buildings. Cascading water destroyed the entrances to union headquarters, and corrosive saltwater flooded the basement, destroying or severely damaging the union's telephone and electrical systems, heating equipment and print shop.

The force of the floodwaters dislodged elevator doors and ruined the walls, floors, candy stand, piano and sliding doors between meeting rooms on the first floor.

"This was worse than 9/11," Pepe said. "In the 38 years I've been here, we have had bad storms and minor flooding, but never anything like Sandy," said Locasio.

"This time we had 20 feet of water. At 8 p.m. October 29, the night of the hurricane, there was no water at all. By 8:20, we had 10 feet of water in the basement and a lot on the ground floor."

In addition to the river waters, foulsmelling sewage entered the building, which Locasio believes accounted for half the flooding.

"Very, very nasty," he said.

Untold pounds of water-soaked paper needed to be removed from the basement mailroom as soon as possible to prevent mold growth - a health hazard. Union officials took the advice of the project's environmental engineer, Howard Bader, to replace the first-floor meeting room doors, because it was likely they would become moldy.

Water pumped out

It took the union's 10 building maintenance employees a week and a half to remove the water from headquarters. A 14,000-gallon mixture of water and oil also had to be removed from the heating system's oil tank

In the initial weeks following the hurricane, the maintenance crew devoted all their time to the cleanup, working 12-hour shifts.

Throughout the repair and renovation project, the union has worked closely with the city Buildings Dept. to ensure that everything is up to code.

Demolition and repair of the damaged floors and walls, including painting and installing attractive floor tile on the ground floor, took about five months.

The electrical work is also taking months. All the wiring in the basement and on the first floor was ruined by the saltwater, and the union had to have new electrical switchboards designed for the building, The work required approval from the new Electrical Advisory Board, which DC 37 Building repairs on track headquarters the city established to deal with Sandyrelated repair work.

After workers removed damaged cables and wires, the union sold the scrap to a metal dealer.

The union also had to repair a fire alarm system and get it approved by the New York City Fire Dept.

"This disaster was worse than any of us had encountered before, so we have learned a lot through the repair and renovation," DC 37 Associate Director Oliver Gray said. "One of our important tasks has been to take steps to minimize damage if a disaster strikes in the future. With global warming, that's a real possibility."