By PAUL KIRBY
Freeman staff
pkirby@freemanonline.com; twitter.com/PaulatFreeman

KINGSTON, N.Y. — The first phase of fixing City Hall’s tower has been completed, but the tower and other parts of the Broadway building still need more than $400,000 worth of repairs, according to the city engineer.

Ralph Swenson said that the first phase of work was estimated to cost $175,000 but came in $20,000 under budget.

Now, Swenson expects to appear before the Common Council in August to request additional funding to make more repairs to the tower and to put a new roof on the building.

The current roof is 24 years old and will cost about $120,000 to replace, Swenson said.

Swenson said the second and third phases of the tower repair will cost a total of about $300,000.

Council Majority Leader Thomas Hoffay said he’s likely to back Swenson’s funding request.

“The city is maintaining over 20 municipal buildings ... and they require constant upgrading and capital improvements,” said Hoffay, D-Ward 2, who chairs the council’s Finance/Economic Development Committee. “We are obliged to maintain them. This (City Hall) is a magnificent structure, and the tower and roof are very important.”

City Hall was built between 1872 and 1875, and the tower had to be rebuilt after a fire in 1927. The city moved its offices to 1 Garraghan Drive in the Rondout district in 1972 but returned to the Broadway building in May 2000 after a multimillion-dollar renovation project.

The current work on the tower is being done, in part, to keep water from seeping into the building, Swenson has said.

Specifically, water has gotten into the Common Council chamber and the lunettes that line the walls just below the meeting room’s ceiling. Continued...

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In April 2011, the Common Council authorized borrowing $175,000 for initial repairs to the tower. Contractors with Zupini Construction Inc. began work in March  to repair concrete and brick work inside the tower.

The second and third phases of the tower project will include interior work in the middle and lower parts of the structure along with exterior repairs, Swenson said.

The tower is not in danger of falling, officials have said.

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