AMHERST — Repairing the elevator at the Bangs Community Center that broke during a state-mandated inspection last week and associated costs are expected to exceed $85,000.
John Imbimbo, municipal facilities coordinator for Amherst, said Wednesday he obtained a $77,306 repair estimate from a representative for elevator manufacturer ThyssenKrupp.
This estimate includes the cost of constructing a new hydraulic jack, which was damaged during the inspection, and the labor associated with installing it.
In addition, environmental expenses will likely run over $8,000 for cleaning up the spilled hydraulic fluids.
Imbimbo said he will meet with an insurance adjuster Thursday to determine how much will be covered by insurance and how much will come from town funds.
Select Board Chairwoman Alisa Brewer said in an email that her board has not yet been updated on the situation, and she did not know if there are contingencies in the municipal budget, or other sources of funding available if insurance does not pay for the repairs.
With the elevator out of operation, Senior Center staff members are trying to ensure senior citizens can still get to all the programming, which is spread over three floors. Other tenants of the building, including the Center for New Americans and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampshire County, are also affected by the elevator being out of operation, with people having to climb at least one set of stairs to get to their second-floor offices.
Felix Browne, a spokesman for the Executive Office of Public Safety, which oversees inspections, said in an email that the incident occurred during a regularly scheduled annual inspection for the elevator.
A five-year weight test was part of this, meaning a full load on the elevator using weights. The loaded elevator is taken from the basement to the second floor as a way to test its performance under the most extreme load, Browne said.
“This elevator is a four-stop hydraulic passenger elevator and the hydraulic jack failed,” Browne said. “This is what the test is designed to assess. There was no damage to the building and no one was hurt.”
It’s the responsibility of the building owner to replace the jack assembly and then have a retest done.
Browne said such breakdowns are not uncommon, and it does not indicate a maintenance failure, but the elevator will be out of service for at least two months.
Imbimbo said this estimate is likely based on the one month to manufacture the new jack, and another month to get it installed, and to obtain a permit.
But experience from a similar failure in an elevator at the police station means the elevator will be out of service far longer. That one did not work for four months, Imbimbo said.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
