The Board of Selectmen last week voted 3-0 in favor of a contract with a Norwalk-based company to remove a gazebo behind the Lapham Community Center.
The gazebo can be seen to the left in this photo behind Lapham Community Center. Credit: Michael Dinan
Located near a planned baseball stadium, the structure is “past its useful life,” according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann.
“The benches on the inside are rotted out,” Mann told the selectmen during their regular meeting, held April 16 at Town Hall and via videoconference. “We’ve got some other issues working on it. And it’ll either require some additional work to maintain or we should necessarily remove it.”
He added, “It is quite close to the work at Coppo Field and will probably be impacted by that work. So we feel it’s best at present to have it removed. It’s not well used and it’s inaccessible at present.”
First Selectman Dionna Carlson and Selectmen Steve Karl and Amy Murphy Carroll voted in favor of a $2,735 contract with Hussey Bros. to do the demolition.
The work will require removal of footings, not just the above-ground structure, Mann said.
The selectmen asked whether the gazebo had been gifted to the town (don’t know) and whether the town paid for it (don’t know).
Karl asked whether the town, when it’s dealing with a small wood structure like this, could tap members of the highway or another DPW department to take down with sledgehammers on their down time.
Mann responded, “If we had the downtime, we would take care of it.”
He added that removal of the footings is most of the work.
“We’re backfilling and seeding and haying and restoring and getting out,” he said. “So it’s not necessarily just knocking down that one.”
Lapham bought the gazebo kit with funds raised within the community. The builders were Jack Rorhbach, Art House and Ray Wheeler. The trio did projects around the community and referred to themselves as Snap, Crackle and Pop. Jack died many years ago, Art moved away and Ray died a year or so ago.
People used to sit in it when they watched games because we would find the patio chairs out in the gazebo. Probably to get out of the sun or rain. Kids played in it also because we would find stone towers and other creations.
Lyn Bond (former Lapham Center Director) Aggie Aspinwall (current Director), and Penny Young (President of the Senior Center Board)