Amazingly, Don Smith’s tenants could be back home within weeks

A few of the cots that Ray Bigrow and Stacy Button at the Adirondack Adult Center set up for 13 Don Smith’s residents last Monday night in a shelter-style arrangement were awaiting disassembly Tuesday morning after everyone was moved to local motels. (Dan McClelland photo)

by Dan McClelland

Amazing as it sounds, many of the tenants of Don Smith’s Apartments who were displaced last Monday due to a major water line break could be back home in several weeks.

That good news came Monday from Debbie Reil, who manages the complex on Wawbeek Ave.

There are several key reasons for the rapid return of tenants to the water-soaked building. The first was quick action by the disaster remediation company that were engaged. A crew from Servicemaster was on the scene Monday with some of its clean-up equipment only hours after a main sprinkler system valve cracked open on the third floor. A second reason was how fast the building’s maintenance man got the water shut off. Another reason, according to Ms. Reil was the prompt attention of the downstate company that owns the building. -And the final, and perhaps most important reason was that the contracting company that had been renovating the building since June, was still on the scene.

When the sprinkler system valve erupted about mid-day last Monday water rained down on the three floors of apartments.

All tenants were evacuated almost immediately in an operation directed by the volunteers of the Tupper Lake Fire Department, in conjunction with local Emergency Coordinator Carl Steffen and others.

Many of the occupants of the 50 apartments were collected by families here and many are still there.

Ms. Reil said that 16 of the apartments did not receive water damage and the residents of those units have returned. Three other residents whose apartments were damaged are staying with their neighbors in their apartments.

Thirteen residents were bussed to the town’s Aaron Maddox Hall where they stayed Monday night, sleeping on cots that had been set up there in a shelter-style arrangement by Adirondack Adult Center Director Stacy Button and past director, Ray Bigrow.

Eleven of those people were moved into local motels last Tuesday and are still staying there. Their temporary lodging is being paid for by the company that owns the building. Most are staying at the Schuller family’s Tupper Lake Motel. One is staying at the Park Motel and one is at Faust Motel, where they asked to stay.

One of the displaced resident, Mary Lou Andre was back at the Aaron Maddox Hall Wednesday to collect her cats.

Renovations were expected to start in a big way yesterday.

In preparation for the rebuilding effort, the third floor apartments have already been stripped. All flooring was removed to expose the sub-floor plywood. Any cabinets touched by water will be removed.

“Each apartment has been assessed individually for water damage,” Ms. Reil explained. All carpeting has been removed. She said the plan is to remove all the sheetrock on the walls of the third floor apartments, stripping those units to the studs.

Some of that same work will also be done on the second floor units, depending on the amount of damage they saw from the flooding.

Servicemaster technicians with their squeegees and other water extraction tools “had to dry out the entire building before all the damage could be determined,” she explained.

“Considering when the event happened that company was wonderful. Because of our emergency situation, I immediately called several companies last Monday and Servicemaster was the first one that responded.” She said it had an inspection crew on site later that same afternoon.

Its crews worked through the evening until about 9p.m. doing the initial mopping up of all the water. It installed de-humidifiers that first evening once all the water was removed to continue the drying out process.

Village Code Enforcement Officer Pete Edwards was inspecting the building late Monday along with the Servicemaster crews.

The 16 apartments on what he called “the outer wings” of all three floors were the apartments that escaped the damage.

He noted that flooding is a particularly troubling kind of damage to a building “as there is often a lot of hidden damage that isn’t found right away.” He predicted the building will require extensive remediation.

He said the renovation project this summer was extensive. “The apartments, which saw some of the bathrooms reconfigured along with the other renovations, were beautiful!”

The apartment complex was purchased earlier this year by a company called Ogden Realty, which is owned by the Carbone family, who live in the New York City area. The family and its companies also own the Greenwood building in Lake Placid, as well as other North Country businesses.

“I called both corporate offices and my district manager immediately after this happened, and the severity of what we were facing. I sent to them 42 photographs showing the extent of the damage.”

“My district manager who lives in the Saratoga area came up immediately. Tom Carbone, one of the owners, was here first thing Tuesday morning and walked the entire building to look at everything,” Ms. Reil noted.

She said once all the water was removed from the building- it showed a lot of damage, but it also showed it could have been much worse.

“I definitely credit the work of our maintenance man and all the fire department volunteers who responded. They did a fantastic job!”

She said Jon Depuy, who heads maintenance at the complex had just left the building when the calls from tenants began. He was on his way home to Saranac Lake and was out of cell service for some minutes. As he neared Saranac Lake his cell service returned, his phone started ringing and he immediately returned to Tupper to shut of the water.

“He got back here as fast he could to shut off the main lines.”

Ms. Reil said the community “has been wonderful about helping people. I cannot say enough good about the Tupper Lake community. Many people pulled together in a very unique crisis situation.” She said they have received donations of towels, blankets, food to feed tenants who have been displaced, etc.

There was insurance on the building, but it is not known at this point how that will all work out, she told the Free Press.

“We’ve documented everything with photographs and incidents reports,” she said which should help with any and all insurance adjustments.

She said surprisingly that tenants could be moving back to the building within two weeks.

“Our contractors are already in place” from the complete restoration and renovation of the building that began in early summer. That work involved a new roof, new masonry exterior work, new windows and doors and the complete renovation of each apartment, including new flooring, new cabinets and appliances. “We still have workmen on site.”

“They already know all the square footages in the building, how much tile and other flooring is needed for each apartment, etc.,” she explained.

Before that project began in June, the last two years under the previous owners saw extensive electrical and plumbing upgrades in the building, Ms. Reil stated.

She said the contractors “already know the complete scope of the building and all the dimensions.

ECT Contractors, whose crew boss lives in New Jersey, is the name of the company that tackled the entire renovation and some of its workers were finishing up projects when the flood occurred last Monday.

She said the building has been almost totally renovated with Monday’s disaster happened. “It’s a major undertaking but we’re ready for it,” she concluded.

Mayor Paul Maroun applauded the broad community effort to help the 50 or more displaced residents of Don Smith’s.

Although he was on vacation in Minnesota visiting his sister, Cindy, over Christmas, he was on the telephone with local agencies and groups the minute he was told of the disaster last Monday.

He said he was in contact with Emergency Coordinator Carl Steffen every day for the past week, and with Ms. Reil and her people.

“This was a real tragedy for the people of Don Smith’s. The village and town really stepped in to help!”

He said there was expected to be a meeting yesterday with the owners of the building and with some of the local emergency officials and town and village officials. He said he expected to be briefed on it by Village Clerk Mary Casagrain, who would be there.

“Some of those recently renovated apartments saw major damage, unfortunately.”

“The village will continue to assist in every way we can.”

He said he contacted Kim Higgins, the campus director at Sunmount, who furnished new pillows and pillow cases for those 13 who stayed that first night at the Aaron Maddox Hall.

The 911 Emergency Services Center in Malone helped with the evacuation process last Monday.

“We look forward to continuing to work with the building owners to get those residents back home as soon as possible!”

“The Tupper Lake community really pitched in. It always does when there’s a disaster...we always will!”

“The VFW Post has helped, as has the food pantry, the adult center, Ray Bigrow and Stacy Button...many people and groups have stepped forward to help.”

“I know that village and town officials will help anyway they can to help these people get through this!”

“-And this was a real shame...those remodeled units were all very nice. I’m confident they will be again!”

“I’ve met with the owners from New York City and they want to keep Don Smith’s up to snuff and very nice in the years ahead!”

“Their manager Debbie has done a nice job during this event. -And I talk with Carl Steffen every day! Carl did a good job through all of this as did our firefighters!”