Niles must move quickly, carefully to fix City Hall

In many respects, the danger- ous structural deficiencies now plaguing Niles City Hall stand out as a metaphor for the city’s long-standing lack of adequate oversight and inattention to detail that sank it into embarrassing state-supervised fiscal emergency two years ago.

Unfortunately, however, the mold-generating leaky roof and severely damaged basement wall are not metaphors. They are stark and stinking realities that demand responsible, expeditious and transparent repair and remediation.

According to Warren architect Bruce Sekanick, damage to the roof of the 89-year-old brick building in downtown Niles is massive.

“The roof is billowing, fasteners have let loose and water is seeping in,” Sekanick said at a council meeting Monday. “It should have been repaired earlier.”

Indeed, the former Niles city administration, under the leadership of Mayor Ralph Infante, was warned of the potential dangers of the flimsy and time-worn roof five years ago. But in a classic act of penny-wise, pound-foolish, Infante and his fellow administrators chose to ignore a credible recommendation for full roof replacement and instead merely did a temporary patch job on it. Now, it appears as if the roof is beyond repair.

As a result, at this point, public safety and administrative liability concerns must trump all other municipal issues, even the most serious fiscal muck in which the city continues to wallow. Already the mayor and at least two other city workers have been sickened from the ill effects of the mold, and the mayor required hospitalization.

To its credit, city council has been taking the potential health and safety crisis seriously, meeting regularly over the past week to fast-track action to remedy the structural dangers.

Council members have hired Sekanick to complete a set of recommendations on replacing all or parts of the 24,000-square-foot roof, with preliminary estimates running as high as $360,000. They are advertising for bids for the work, contingent in part on the results of the study and recommendations. They have hired a construction firm to begin remediation of mold. More work also will be needed on strengthening the basement wall.

Hefty investment

Clearly with all of those tasks and more, the cost will not be insignificant. City leaders would be remiss not to begin making plans for a hefty investment in the facility and to search out viable funding sources immediately. City Auditor Giovanne Merlo’s comments at a meeting Wednesday that “There’s no point” in exploring financing options now represents the same lack of strict oversight that contributed to the city’s fall into the abyss of fiscal emergency in the first place.

On another positive note, council did reject a consideration to bypass public and transparent bidding for the roof repairs and other work. It also is planning a public roundtable session with the architect when repair costs have been determined, which is projected within about 10 days.

Some have mentioned that they hope all work can be completed by Oct. 31. While work should progress quickly and efficiently, that projection may be overly optimistic – particularly without financing plans in place. And the administration must ensure that the work is executed completely and comprehensively in order to ward off health and safety problems and liabilities that could sink the city further into its familiar sea of red ink.

Council members and city leaders also must consider the worst-case scenario. That would be a recommendation that needed repairs would be so cost prohibitive that Niles would be better off to relocate City Hall to more safe and secure quarters.

As long as this dilemma continues, it will continue to damage the reputation of the city and public confidence in city officials’ ability to govern responsibly and transparently.

If, however, city leaders steadfastly remain committed to repairing the damage with public safety and fiscal responsibility uppermost in their minds, then the current City Hall crisis could end up serving as a different metaphor, one representing positive and successful problem-solving. While we won’t hold our breath toward that end, that is a goal the mayor, city council and department heads must strive diligently to quickly achieve.