The front steps of Town Hall have been shifting due to a problem with their foundation, officials say, and it appears to be creating a drainage issue that’s affecting a wall of the 1909 structure.
Town officials “are trying to find exactly where that water is penetrating through the wall” of the building, Public Works Director Tiger Mann told members of the Board of Selectmen at their regular meeting Tuesday.
“We had to do a little bit of inspection,” Mann said during the Board’s meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. “We’ve got to do a little bit more and then we are actually going to need some additional monies in the budget that we are placing forward to do the work. What we’re finding is that we’ve got some have drainage issues down below.”
The comments came in response to a question from Selectman Kathleen Corbet on one of the contracts valued at less than $10,000 that the Board regularly reviews at its meetings. Corbet asked about a $2,500 contract with New Canaan-based Peter Lanni Inc., described only as “exploratory front entry work” at 77 Main St. (Town Hall’s address). The contract itself was not included in the public packet for the meeting.
Mann said there’s a “secondary problem” with “the staircase itself.”
“While the entire patio is placed on a slab of concrete, the stairs are not,” Mann said. “So the stairs are moving each year. They keep pushing way out due to water pressure. And there is no base below it. So it was a good thing that we went out and did the investigation because it made us realize that we’ve got to actually take out the entire staircase, put a concrete footing down for it and then build it properly. We’ve been resetting the stones every year but we’re just chasing our tails at that point in time. So we’ve got to do a little more investigation to try to determine the drainage problem and then we will come forward with a comprehensive plan to take care of the drainage and the installation of the front steps.”
The Main Street-facing portion of Town Hall was preserved as part of an approximately $18 million renovation and expansion of New Canaan’s central municipal government building that finished in 2015.
Corbet asked whether the stairs out front of Town Hall are original.
Mann said, “Pretty much.”
“When they built it ,it’s pretty much the exact same and we can’t understand why it’s built on a layer of sand, compacted sand and stone dust, no concrete underneath it. That’s why it continues to push out. Water gets in and pushes the fines out and then it starts to move itself.”
Selectman Nick Williams asked whether the town would need to dig up the stairs and put in a foundation. Mann said, “Yes, unfortunately.”
First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said the situation was an “example of renovating-as-new,” a possible reference to the ongoing debate over whether to renovate the current New Canaan Police Department or build a new one somewhere else in town.