By Jordan Cohen

news@vindy.com

NILES

A leaking roof under repair in the city’s Safety Services building forced the Financial Planning and Supervision Commission to meet in the city’s Wellness Center.

Now the commission, which oversees Niles’ efforts to emerge from fiscal emergency, wants to know if the repair costs will negatively affect the city’s recovery plan.

“I am concerned about the significant impact on the capital [improvements] plan,” Quentin Potter, commission chairman, said at the Tuesday meeting.

Roof repairs at the building, which houses municipal court and a fire station, were underway when the leaks were detected Monday. Damage to the clerk of courts area forced the cancellation of court proceedings Monday and Tuesday.

The city is paying a contractor more than $340,000 to replace several roofs, including the one at safety services. The costs are included in a capital-improvements plan the commission approved as part of the city’s recovery from more than three years in state-declared fiscal emergency.

Ed Stredney, service director, said the city has “several thousand dollars” in contingency funds should problems such as the leaking roof arise.

“This is what happens when you don’t maintain a building for 40 years,” said Mayor Thomas Scarnecchia, who sits on the commission.

The questions about the roof detracted only slightly from what one of the state-appointed fiscal supervisors, Tim Lintner, described as the continuous improvement of the city’s general fund, which jumped from a low cash balance above $398,000 at the start of this year to more than $2.4 million last month.

“Everything is looking amazing,” Lintner said. “We’re making money.”