Last week’s overnight storm, which brought nearly four inches of rain to Warren, not only left many residents’ basements flooded, but the city’s community center was also badly damaged.
Severe flooding occurred in the basement of the Warren Community Center on Arden Avenue, destroying boilers, water heaters, centrifugal pumps, control panels and much of the equipment needed to operate the community center’s swimming pool.
“The basement of the community center was more than three feet under,” said Anthony Casasanta, deputy director of parks and recreation, during a special city council meeting on August 8. “There was a lot of damage.”
The Warren Community Center swimming pool has been closed since Aug. 2, and Thursday’s special council meeting was packed with residents, most of whom said they regularly use the pool and wanted to know when it would reopen.
After Warren Public Services Director David Muzzarelli gave a detailed presentation of the damage, the cause of the flooding and a plan to prevent future flooding, the City Council unanimously approved $800,000 in emergency funding to replace damaged equipment and take steps to prevent future flooding.
The Downtown Development Authority will pay $500,000 for the repairs; $300,000 had already been earmarked for replacing the old boilers. City Controller Richard Fox said insurance should cover about $700,000 of the total cost.
Preventative measures, Muzzarelli said, include installing a new sewage pumping system, a new alarm system that immediately notifies his department when water enters the basement, and raising the three boilers off the ground.
“We believe we have found the cause of the flooding: a sewer line that was patched years ago and then broke,” Muzzarelli said. “We have hired contractors to uncover it and will repair it the way it should have been repaired in the first place so that this defect cannot happen again.”
The pool is scheduled to open in mid-September. Casasanta said memberships and passes will be extended for those who paid to use the pool during the closure period. In addition, anyone who booked a birthday party or other event at the pool will have their payment refunded.
Council members Jonathan Lafferty and Gary Boike toured the basement of the community center this week and saw firsthand the damage caused by last week’s flooding. Lafferty agreed that repairs needed to be made, but wanted assurances that the new equipment would not be destroyed by flooding in the near future.
“My main concern is to make sure the money spent is not wasted,” Lafferty said. “I don’t want to have this meeting again in six months, and right now I have no confidence whatsoever that we can keep the water out of that basement.”
Muzzarelli said the main cause of the flooding is currently being addressed, but extreme rain like what Warren experienced last week could still cause problems.
“We’re right next to Red Run, so I can’t promise that nothing will happen in the future,” Mussarelli said. “But the new sump pump and alarm system will be effective, so we’ll be warned of a flood before it reaches four feet, and we’ll be able to act quickly before it reaches even a few inches.”
Last week was the second time the community center’s basement flooded. The first was in 2014, when the region was hit by widespread flooding, and last week, when Warren received four inches of rain in about two hours.
The basement rehabilitation project is being streamlined to reopen the pool as soon as possible, with demolition and removal of damaged equipment to begin immediately.
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