Several Colts Neck employees returned to a familiar place during the week of Dec. 19 — their offices.
When Hurricane Irene rampaged through the region in late August, the basement of Colts Neck’s town hall incurred severe damages.
“As a result of the hurricane, town hall was flooded. There were at least 6 inches of water throughout the entire basement,” Township Administrator Robert Bowden told the News Transcript.
Although town hall was equipped with two sump pumps to combat flooding, a power outage rendered the sump pumps useless, township health officer Tom Frank said.
“There was a battery backup on one of (the sump pumps). It may have worked for a short period of time,” Frank said. “They are supposed to work for eight to 10 hours (on batteries). After that, all bets are off.”
Frank said he discovered the flooding at 9:30 a.m. the day after the hurricane and said municipal officials quickly began to pick up the pieces.
After the water was removed, township officials hired a hygienist to test for potential health hazards, Frank said. “One of the concerns was the mold. After we got those results, we got the employees out of there right away. You want to make sure you are doing everything you can.”
Employees who work on the lower floor of town hall relocated to the Colts Neck library for more than three months, Bowden said.
The damage displaced three full-time and 10 part-time employees from the Planning Board office, as well as from the code enforcement, fire marshal and building departments, he said.
Temporary phone lines and computer lines ran from town hall to the nearby library, Frank said. Three trailers sat in the parking lot, loaded with the employees’ filing cabinets, he said.
To rid the basement of health risks, workers disinfected the walls with hydrogen peroxide, removed the mold and cleaned the air ducts, Frank said. Basement vents were sealed to protect employees who were working on the unaffected upper level of town hall, he said.
The basement walls were repainted, the flooring was removed and minor plumbing and electrical problems were also repaired, Bowden said.
Frank said the basement at town hall now has tile flooring, instead of carpeting.
Insurance covered all costs associated with the repairs, which reached about $150,000, Bowden said. He said the township paid an insurance deductible of about $2,500.
Preventive measures were put in place in an attempt to avoid a repeat of the incident, Frank said. A new trench drainage system was installed, along with an additional sump pump. He said battery backups were placed on all three of town hall’s sump pumps.
Officials also installed a telephone response system that will automatically call three municipal employees if the power goes out, but telephone lines are intact, Frank said.
“It’s about duplication,” he said. “We want to put in different types of controls.”
Frank said the possibility of purchasing an emergency generator for town hall or connecting to the police department’s existing generator is being explored.