South Portland City Hall Kelley Bouchard photo/Press Herald
SOUTH PORTLAND — South Portland City Hall closed last week due to a frozen coil that caused water to flow into several departments. Several of the offices may be out of service for more than a month.
The water leak was attributed to a frozen coil inside an air handler unit. Once the coil froze, it broke, allowing the water in the system to leak. The leak was first discovered by the first municipal workers arriving at city hall on Jan. 31. The leak was contained and no further damage is expected.
According to a statement made by City Manager Scott Morelli, the system froze sometime over the weekend when a winter storm brought blizzard conditions and freezing temperatures.
“It’s possible that when the heating system ran out of water, it called for more water from the building’s domestic water connection, resulting in additional water leakage,” Morelli said in a written statement.
The leak caused damage to the human resources office and part of the city clerk’s office on the first floor. The finance and IT director’s office is on the second floor, as well as several storage and mechanical spaces in the basement. Water damaged ceiling tiles, light fixtures, flooring, computers, monitors, printers, desk chairs and paper files. No vital records or historical documents appeared to have been damaged, officials said.
City hall partially reopened on Feb. 2 with some access to areas that were closed to the public. Due to the damage, access to the first floor of will be temporarily sectioned off. Each side of the building will be inaccessible while work on the impacted areas takes place. Certain offices will likely remain closed for at least a month.
“It will likely be a month or more before these offices are able to be used again,” Morelli said.
The cost of the water damage has yet been determined, but the city’s insurance carrier will cover the losses, officials said. The city will attempt to salvage as much as possible from the damaged locations. ServPro will work to de-water and dry out all the impacted areas and office spaces. Once dry, each space will require various levels of construction, as well as new furniture, supplies and equipment.
Those who need to conduct business in the building should enter the building through the front door on Cottage Road for access to the city clerk’s office, executive office, SPC-TV and use the back door by the Ocean Street parking lot for the finance department.
Those with disabilities or mobility concerns should use the elevator at the rear entrance of the building. Individuals that are requiring the city clerk services should proceed to the finance department and a representative from the clerk’s office will come to provide assistance. Some services will be accessible via the internet on the South Portland website, https://www.southportland.org/.
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