Aldermen vote to close Derby parking garage

Feb. 28--DERBY -- Citing major concern for public safety, the Board of Aldermen voted Thursday to shut down the city's municipal parking garage, which many said is "crumbling" in spots, until further notice.

The decision came as quite a shock to all, including Parking Authority Executive Director Leo Moscato and Parking Authority Chairman Joe Moore, who came to the aldermen's meeting to apprise them of an engineering study done last September and bring them up to speed about some much-needed repairs for the four-level garage.

Since the aldermen's vote didn't include an official time to close the garage, although those who voted in favor of it indicated it should be done immediately, Moscato said the garage will be open for business Friday.

"We didn't come here tonight to close down the garage," Moscato said. "We came to show the condition of the structure as is, and to show there are issues with the decks, but the engineer's study doesn't say anything about closing the garage."

However, after listening to Richard Marniki, a structural engineer from Old Saybrook who did the study last year, list a number of potentially dangerous issues concerning the interior, several aldermen felt compelled to close the garage in the name of safety.

"Safety is No. 1, and I'd rather shut it down and have an engineer look at it rather than be the guy who's digging through the rumble," said Aldermen David Lenart, fearing someone could get hurt by falling concrete.

Alderman Carmen DiCenso who recently toured the garage with Parking Authority members, and was only one of two who accepted an invitation to do so, brought a chunk of concrete which he found lying on one of the decks.

"If you don't do something soon, you'll have a major catastrophe there," he said.

The aldermen ended up voting 5-4 in favor of closing the garage, pending an engineering study. It's expected that the city will have its building inspector and insurance carrier do an immediate inspection of the garage, and deem whether it's safe or not for public usage.

Moscato said the engineering study, which he chastised the aldermen for not paying closer attention to, never suggested closing the garage, but rather recommended about $6.9 million worth of necessary repairs to bring the 39-year old structure up to code.

Marniki told the aldermen the 88,000 sq. ft. facility is way beyond its 25-year shelf life, and said the interior should basically be gutted and rebuilt. He said the steel frame is fine, but the concrete slabs, decking, guardrails, drainage system and several other unseen issues must be repaired.

"There's a lot of things wrong with the structure," Marniki said.

When asked by several aldermen if he'd shut the garage down, Marniki replied "yes, part of it should be."

Moscato said 300-400 cars park there daily, not to mention the dozens of contracts local businesses, including the Derby Post Office and TEAM, Inc. have to park there on a daily basis.

"I wouldn't park in there," DiCenso said after touring the facility

Garage repairs were expected to be included in a referendum last year, but the previous Board of Aldermen did not place it on the ballot with the school roof replacement project because they said cost estimates were not ready.

Several aldermen said the engineering study was never presented to them.

"We didn't see the study, and I was told it wasn't ready," said Aldermanic President Barbara DeGennaro.

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