The East Hampton Village engineer, Vincent Gaudiello of the Raynor Group, declared the village’s Emergency Services Building on Cedar Street unsafe for public assembly last Thursday afternoon after a condensation leak exposed a structural problem in the roof.
“We’re erring on the side of caution here. To bring public assembly into the space would be foolish,” he said by phone that day.
Until the problem can be fixed, all village meetings will be held at LTV Studios.
The village has engaged Craft Engineering Studio, consulting structural engineers out of New York City, to assess the damage. They were expected to have viewed the building by today.
Tom Preiato, the chief building inspector for the village, said in a phone call Tuesday that he hoped they would be able to shore up the portion of the roof that has the damage so that the room where the village holds its meetings could be used while repairs are completed.
The entire building is fine, he said, minus one area under the skylights. Last week, Marcos Baladron, the village administrator, said that he had seen “sagging” near the skylights.
“The system itself is a bit intricate,” said Mr. Gaudiello. “It’s not an easy fix.” The roof is supported by a truss system made up of “various timber members that are fastened to each other in an arrangement and work as a whole,” he said. “A couple of the timbers within the truss pulled out or failed.”
“The area is blocked off,” said Mr. Preiato. “We hope to have some answers soon.”
The Emergency Services Building was constructed in 1960. It houses the village’s Police Department and its ambulances and fire trucks and has a large second-floor meeting hall.
The building issue caused Friday’s board of trustees meeting to be moved to LTV studios with less than 24 hours’ notice.
“We could have postponed the meeting or move it. We decided to move it,” said Mr. Baladron.
The village started the meeting 30 minutes after its usual start time of 11 a.m. to allow for extra travel time. Mr. Baladron said village employees at the Emergency Services Building directed people to LTV Studios.
It appeared that everyone found the meeting okay. Close to 100 people attended to voice their concerns over the new Emergency Medical Services Department and to congratulate Police Department members on their promotions.
At the meeting Mayor Jerry Larsen asked Mr. Preiato how long they could expect to be out of 1 Cedar Street.
“A matter of weeks, I would hope,” said Mr. Preiato.
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Note: This article has been updated since it was originally published.
