From our Moderator, Al Forino:

Water, Water, Everywhere….

One of the benefits of having Will Henton on site is that he routinely gets up at crazy hours to check on the grounds of United Church of the Green.  So it was on Sunday March 20th when he had arisen before dawn to do a visual walk through of the Meeting House before the Sunday Worship service there five hours later.  Thanks to Will, he discovered that we had a flood in the Bradley Room which caused us to close off the basement with over five inches of water standing in the floor well of the space that the Congregation uses for its coffee hour after services.  This was to be the first Sunday with coffee and conversation after the most recent closure of the Bradley Room space due to the Covid pandemic.  Will promptly shut the water off which saved even more expensive and extensive damage from occurring.  As bad as the pictures depict the extent of the water damage, had Will arrived on the scene at 8:00 a.m., the damage would have been extensively worse.  

We determined that that the water was coming from the Men’s lavatory which is raised above the lowest portion of the Bradley Room, such that it ran from the lavatory to the conference rooms adjacent to our new video room and down into in the central seating area.  The carpeting throughout the room was soaked including the perimeter walkway and ramp and the nursery room on the opposite side into the room with the Noah’s Ark/Alphabetic Animal mural.  The New Haven Fire Department was called.  Operations Director, Jack Russell drove in and immediately called work crews in so that the water was being pumped out and drying efforts begun by the time that the now outdoor after service coffee hour had broken up.  All of the carpeting downstairs has had to be ripped up to expose the sub flooring which had been built during the 2004-5 Bradley Room renovation and restoration.  Drying fans and dehumidifiers have been put into place so that all moisture can be dried to prevent mold from taking hold.  Long time members will recall that the Bradley Room was renovated in 2004-2005 with the Congregation expending $750,000 to transform the dank dark cement cellar into a warm inviting room suitable for both church functions and civic use by our New Haven neighbors, only to have to close the room for nearly two years when the new air conditioning system was found to be the source of a mold outbreak.  So we know the importance of patience in assuring that nothing gets covered over until it is thoroughly dried.

And speaking of the 2004 renovations, it turns out that the cause of this entire washout has its genesis in those renovations.  The workers from Cordone and Tunucci have found the leak in the wall between the men's room and the classroom.  When the renovations were done, new fixtures were put into the Men’s room.  Back then they capped off a copper pipe with a galvanized steel plug instead of a copper plug, which violates Plumbing 101.   Over the years the steel plug slowly rotted away until in the wee ours of Sunday morning it met its breaking point and burst.   Will has preserved the steel plug remnants for safekeeping. 

We are taking steps to ensure that a similar error was not made in the Ladies’ Room which also had less extensive work done in 2004/5 project.  We have employed J.P. Maguire, a certified remediation company which is obliged to follow all health, safety and code regulations.  They met with our insurance adjuster to assess the damage and reach a preliminary settlement figure.  The church has a $10,000 deductible on our insurance policy.  J.P. Maguire is also a full service general contractor which can oversee all aspects of the reconstruction process, and will ensure that when all is done, the Bradley Room will be in all respects, the jewell of a gift to the community which we intended when we undertook the remodeling in 2004. Given our history with mold here, we must not rush to reopen this space.  

In the meanwhile, when weather permits we will meet outdoors for coffee hour following the Sunday service.  When weather does not permit, we have the option of coffee hour in the narthex or in the Great Hall of the Parish House down the street at 323 Temple St. For now, both lavatories in the Bradley Room are open.