Board approves more funding for St. Paul’s work



At its February 4 meeting the Garden City Board of Trustees approved several new construction change orders and an increase of $200,000 for the services of New York City-based construction management firm CNY Group for stabilization work on the historic St. Paul’s building.

CNY Group, whose project executive for St. Paul’s is village resident Walter Beal, will continue its oversight of the stabilization and abatement work that has taken place since the start of 2020.

Also on February 4th the Village Board approved a $32,282 change order for Westar Construction Group, Inc. of Syosset, for additional shoring and joist replacement of an approximate 300-square-foot area at St. Paul’s first floor main entrance foyer.

Walter Beal joined the trustees and village administration for the Zoom meeting and explained that the change order for Westar was negotiated down to $32,282.

“They (Westar Construction) had presented a much larger change order to me and I had told them they are not entitled to anything until the Village Board of Trustees approves it. They are aware of that, and I negotiated the cost based on the hours they performed their work down to $32,282 before you tonight. I believe this is a justified cost,” Beal said.

Village Administrator Ralph Suozzi said the first floor, near St. Paul’s main entrance, simply “collapsed” and the flooring would be shored so workers at the project site can go in and out of St. Paul’s safely. According to Beal, Westar Construction performed the work stated in the change order “at their own risk, and this started as they opened the door one morning and the floor was in the basement.” He added that this was never the condition noted when Thornton Tomasetti performed its first structural review and prepared a report (initiated in 2018) to the village.

Structural issues with the floor apparently had been deteriorating, although slightly, as the other stabilization work was progressing at the historic building over the past year.

For the roof work, Beal said sometime in November when the lifts took project workers above the flat roofs, Westar Construction took photographs and noticed the damage in the aftermath of high winds from Tropical Storm Isaias “and a couple of other wind events that blew some of the flat roofing off the roof.” His team recommended that Thornton Tomasetti perform an inspection for the repairs that will need to go out to bid.

The stained glass window bid package was finalized and put out to bid, and walkthroughs of the bid were set to take place on Wednesday, February 10. Bids for the work will be due on Tuesday, February 23.

“We coordinated the bid insurance requirements between Village Attorney Peter Bee’s office and Village Treasurer Irene Woo’s office. We anticipate being able to make a bid award recommendation  to the Board of Trustees at their first meeting in March (Thursday March 11). After that we will get the insurances and contract together with the intention of starting in early April,” Walter Beal said. Beal outlined an eight-week process for safe removal of the historic  stained glass.

Also on February 4 the Board of Trustees approved a change order of $15,000 for services from structural engineering and design firm Thornton Tomasetti, which was first brought into the St. Paul’s project with Beyer Blinder Belle in the third quarter of 2017. At this time, Administrator Suozzi attributes the impacts to the roofing systems at St. Paul’s to the high wind and harsh weather events of the last several months including Isaias in August 2020. The change order of $15,000 stated “to provide investigation services to assist the Village in better understanding the damaged roof and to provide conception recommendations to repair these areas.” Suozzi says Thornton Tomasetti will conduct a detailed investigation and prepare a cost estimate for the repairs of the roof and exterior areas. As that wraps up, there will be a correlated second step to the process of sealing the building’s roof against the elements. Suozzi hopes that can be put on the trustees’ agenda for Tuesday, February 23.

Beal also told the Board of Trustees that the project managers are seeking proposals from engineering firms for a Phase II Environmental Conditions report, “because we are at a point where even though there’s some damage to the flat roofs we could begin investigating the abatement.”

Bob Orosz asked when the stabilization work “will stop and when the abatement would begin.”

Walter Beal replied with an overview of the sequence. “The abatement process has technically begun and thus we’re seeking proposals from an engineering firm to prepare the report that would get us to the point where we can put together bid packages and put that out to bid. We are not waiting for stabilization of the building to be 100% complete before we start that process as it is ongoing now,” he said.

Orosz then asked about a timeline for the next stage to be implemented, and also how proposals will come forward to the village. Beal said it would take one to two months at least to secure an engineering firm, which he said would probably take another four weeks to issue a report.

Village Administrator Suozzi said he’s already received one engineering  firm’s proposal but in the course of due diligence he is “circulating to other engineering firms” so they can provide their proposals to the Village, “based on the same specifications so that we get the best price for the work.” He confirmed that this would likely take about a month, or just slightly longer.

“I would like to receive bids from five other firms so that we have a broad spectrum of proposals. I will circulate them to Mr. Beal as they come in,” Suozzi said.

Orosz asked how engineers will be able to inspect the St. Paul’s site to evaluate the scope of work Garden City has outlined in bid packages. “I can’t see how firms can offer proposals without visiting the St. Paul’s site. To do it from books and past experience is not what we have here. And as the professionals look into the abatement of the building they are going to find more and more things that could be done to stabilize the building. I am afraid of going on and on with the stabilization,” Orosz commented.

Beal clarified that this was not correct; environmental engineers will not be tasked with looking at structural components and “things along the stabilization route.” They will instead be identifying and quantifying contaminants existing within St. Paul’s.

“I agree with you that the building will continue to deteriorate however environmental engineers will not be looking toward that end of things,” he said.

Suozzi said the one engineering firm that has submitted its proposal is already familiar with St. Paul’s.

“They have already been on the grounds and their proposal is very specific, so the other firms will be allowed to visit the site as well, but they also are starting from a specification template that’s well-refined. They most likely can submit to us their numbers and magnitude based on that alone but I’d encourage them to visit the site,” Suozzi said.   

Orosz asked about providing bidders with the past reports by other firms’ that put together information on what work might need to be done, and Suozzi replied that the Village of Garden City’s website contains the prior history of the St. Paul’s site and overall he would expect firms vying for the work to be well-informed. Orosz referenced one report performed a decade ago as he’s such shared files with the village administration and trustees before, though he says at present “there’s even more damage on top of what existed, as those prior reports indicated.”

Suozzi believes Orosz has raised a fair question and the existing data and information on the environmental aspects of the building should be noted.

“It would be wise to point the bidding firms to the website though conditions may have since changed or gotten worse. I believe within the scope of their profession, firms would have a pretty good idea of what they’re looking for. But, to your point I will provide direction to that information — I do know we have a large history of St. Paul’s data on the website,” he said.

During public comments Eastern Property Owners’ Association President Steve Ilardi asked about new damage observed at St. Paul’s, caused by Tropical Storm Isaias last August, and if the expenses related to it would be reimbursable by FEMA. Village Treasurer Irene Woo said the Village can include the costs in the municipality’s request for FEMA reimbursements.

4 responses to “Board approves more funding for St. Paul’s work”

  1. D Kensington says:

    Another $200k burned to rebuild a collapsed floor. When does it end? The building is starting to fall down on it’s own, when one of the other rotted floors drops and pancakes through the structure will the village allocate a few million to repair it? Tear it down!

  2. Voting FABGC this Year says:

    A 2018 report didnt “note” any issues with the floor. What else don’t we know. This is like “stabilizing” the Titanic after it hit the Atlantic Ocean floor. And we let this group of “experienced” people handle this?

  3. Linda Ryan says:

    Sadly, St. Paul’s is the best illustration of the flawed system of government GC has.

    Can anyone name the mayors and trustees who ignored the building over the last 20 plus years, refused to agree on a use for the building, kicked the can down the road in terms of the most basic maintenance and allowed it to deteriorate beyond use before everyone’s eyes?

    Doubt it. They all hide behind the anonymity of group made decisions. None were held accountable when it came to renomination by their POA and unopposed election.

  4. Community Agreement "Party" says:

    More Funding for Useless Projects? I LOVE IT! Can’t want to elect #CommunityAgreementParty this April!

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