NORTHAMPTON — Less than a year after the Northampton Police Department moved into its $16.5 million facility in 2012, officers noticed a water leak in the building’s lower level, according to Police Chief Jody Kasper and other city officials.
That leak has now led to a project with a cost of more than $735,000 to correct design and construction defects to the station’s front plaza and part of its parking garage, according to city officials.
“This has been the one major issue that we have been dealing with,” Mayor David Narkewicz said. “Initially we were working with the architect and the contractor but now moved forward to effectuating the repairs ourselves.”
Work on what city officials describe as “water infiltration issues” began in mid-March but funds for the repairs were arranged last fall. The City Council held a closed-door meeting before its regularly scheduled Nov. 16 session to “discuss strategy with regard to anticipated litigation relative to design and construction defects at the Police Station Facility causing water infiltration issues,” according to the executive session meeting agenda.
At the council’s regular meeting, the council ordered that $702,007 be moved from various accounts to fund the project to correct design and construction defects at the police station. The remaining money for the $738,350 project is being paid from funds remaining in the Police Station Facility construction account, according to Narkewicz.
More than $631,000 from the city’s free cash was appropriated for the project, as well as $64,774 remaining in the city’s LED Street Light Conversion Capital Project budget. In addition, more than $4,500 was from a premium on bonds issued in June 2017 and $1,251 was taken from remaining funds in the Fire Rescue Department Security Access System Capital Project.
The city contracted with Hoffmann Architects Inc. to complete the most recent design work and RAC Builders to perform the reconstruction in the plaza area next to the station, as well as a portion of the parking deck adjoining the building.
“The work is being done to actually correct the problem. We want to have the building function properly and not have water infiltration,” Narkewicz said. “We are working carefully to document issues and causes for the infiltration along the way.”
The water problems happen during heavy rain and affect areas situated below the department’s flagpole, planters and where the parking deck meets the building, City Solicitor Alan Seewald said. Those areas inside the station include a locker room and a basement storage area, as well as a sally port with a rolling garage door below the parking deck.
When officers began noticing the issue around March 2013, Seewald said, the city worked with the original contractor and designer to try to resolve the problem. The contractor hired a consultant architect to study the issue and then the city itself hired a firm to do a study. All of that took time to complete and, wanting to avoid the potential for extreme cold, the city held off construction until this spring, officials explained.
Part of the current construction effort will be to determine hidden damage, separate from the minor damage to drywall in the interior of the building and water stains that have already been found, Narkewicz and Seewald explained. Water has also damaged card readers connected to the rolling gate. There has been no damage to equipment or officers’ personal property.
The 31,500-square-foot energy-efficient facility was funded in large part with a $10 million, 20-year debt-exclusion override that was approved by voters Nov. 2, 2010. The city bonded a total of $16.5 million for the project, which included design and construction. The station opened in July 2012 after a year of construction. The parking garage portion was completed in January 2013.
The city hired Barr & Barr of Springfield as the general contractor and Arcadis of Middletown, Conn., as the project manager. The architectural firm of Caolo & Bieniek Associates Inc. of Chicopee designed the building. The same firm designed the new high school in Easthampton, which opened in April 2013.
Narkewicz said the city has withheld about $100,000 in payments to Barr & Barr because of the water leaks. The city had been paying for the station in phases and the water leaks were not discovered until officers began using that station and the parking lot connected to the building was completed.
“It is our goal at the end of this process to get the police station we contracted for and that is what we intend to do,” Seewald said.
Emily Cutts can be reached at ecutts@gazettenet.com.