The Board of Selectmen at its most recent meeting approved about $20,000 to prepare for the replacement of the roof at the 113-year-old Irwin Park Barn.
The original roof on the barn had been cedar, and before the town took ownership of the structure “two more layers of fiberglass” were put on it, according to Department of Public Works Superintendent of Buildings Bill Oestmann.
“Which is not code-compliant, but also that’s what is causing the problems with the roof,” Oestmann told the selectmen during their Oct. 19 meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. “The top layer is actually coming off.”
First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kathleen Corbet and Nick Williams voted 3-0 to approve a $19,350 contract with Architectural Preservation Studio, DPC, which has an office in New Canaan. The company will perform “investigation, architectural and document services” for the roof replacement, officials said. Funds for the work were approved as part of the current fiscal year budget, they said.
Oestmann said the town planned to hold off on the roof replacement itself until after the winter.
“I’m watching the market because of material prices are still kind of high,” he said. “They’re starting to come down. So we felt that we are OK getting through this winter and the go out to bid on the first of the year. I want to watch the market a little bit.”
Moynihan asked whether the town should “defer a lot of these projects until markets calm down.”
Oestmann said, “That’s pretty much what I am doing.”
When Moynihan clarified that he’s talking about possibly putting off additional projects for one year, Oestmann said he’s “looking at that” within the DPW budget.
“The current projects we have, we are looking hold them back just a little bit on these and they will be done next summer,” he said. “So we kind of slipped behind in our timeline, so to speak, but we are going to definitely look at everything. Every market is a little different out there. Wooden materials are starting to come down, but there’s still stuff that’s being imported that’s hard to get, obviously. So we are going to take it on a case-by-case basis.”