Ed Borysiewicz' Talk at the Town Hall Meeting January 17, 2024

Ed Borysiewicz: I've been a resident since 1987 and have been your building official since 1987 until 2019 and try to stay active with what's going on in Key Colony Beach.

First of all, I am here today to discuss the damage of Hurricane Irma if I may during my time here in Key Colony Beach.

This is my personal opinion. I'm just going to come out and say it. I believe the city hall building was not substantially damaged in Hurricane Irma, period. The substantially damage means it was damaged more than 50% and the dollar amount needed to bring it back into the condition [it was in] before Hurricane Irma hit. My opinion is that there is no way it was substantially damaged.

As far as the document I submitted back in probably 2018 regarding the center part of city hall, yes I definitely separated it into separate parts. The center part of city hall runs from the Marble Hall wall to the two story area of city hall. That is the old, original part of city hall that we never did put pin piles in. We've had engineers come out, drew up plans for that pin piling, even got prices for those pin piles, and I also spoke to two contractors just today.

If we follow the plan that Daryl Osborn, out city [engineer] put in probably ten years ago, I think it called for maybe 30 or 40 pin piles in that area. The floor would be cut. The pin piles would be installed in sections--they can be screwed together or slotted and no roof has to be removed for the pin piles to be installed inside. To cut the holes and install the pin piles and patch the concrete so the floor is stable like Marble Hall is stable, it's around $1,500 to $2,000 a pin pile. So there's a big difference between $800-900,000 versus $60,000 or $70,000.

The two story portion of city hall, that's a reinforced concrete building, reinforced concrete roof that was built to the building code in the early 2000s. There's nothing wrong with that building. It's on concrette pilings. The post office is the same thing. That's an addition. It was a demo of the old city hall. The new city hall was built on pilings. There's nothing wrong wth that section. The Marble Hall section that was used so much by the public.

The city commission at that time chose to in their wisdom to let's pin pile Marble Hall. It's getting a little too wavy due to settlement that everyone knows we have, the settlement under that building unquestionable just due to the 6x6 wire mesh concrete slab is going to settle once there's a void beneath there. But Marble Hall was corrected. It was completely installed with the pin piles. The floor was leveled and then we had the marble tile put on top of that. You might see voids there but that's what the pin piles are holding up the slab. There is no problem in my opinion with the Marble Hall floor.

The only floor in question is again the old section of the administrative building and I personally wrote a letter saying that that section is unsafe due to the fact that there were many reports written about unsafe wiring, possiblity of mold or mildew, possiblity of asbestos in the building.

Can the city hall area administrative slab, can that fail? I said that's a possibility and a real tough decision to make. But I wrote that letter saying that section is unsafe and right now if I could go back into city hall and look around. I spoke to a few people who have been walking through there. They said, Ed, nothing's really changed over the years. I personally shot the elevations with Mr. [Lawton] and Mr. Roussin immediately after Hurricane Irma. We know what the floor was six years ago, the elevations of the floor We can still go back in there today and my best guess is hardly any settlement has occurred since Hurricane Irma and again I believe it could be pin piled, stabilized, it could be utilized, just stabilized.

You can have people go back in there once the electric and the plumbing is checked out and the air conditioning. Double check for mold or mildew. Double check again for asbestos in that area. If there is asbestos, it needs to be removed or can it be encapsulated. There's a lot of different ways to look at that. But I personally believe that city hall, Marble Hall. there's no reason for it to be closed. Post office, no reason. The two-story area no reason. And the interior in question, can easily I believe be reopened once we verify those few trades we want to habitate it knowing that the floor hasn't settled in six years or if there's any question about that, you put the pin piling in for $1,500 or $2,000 a pin pile, stabilize the floor, be utilizing the entire city hall complex again at the most economical way you could utilize that and then have the commission and the city residents decide if we want a new city hall. Use this in the meantime. Get rid of all the trailers and open up city hall again and then we'll make our mind up. Get some grant money and go ahead wth the new city hall.

And just to throw it out there, I was looking at historic building designations and if the city wanted to designate city hall as an historic building, I've already been in contact with Mr. Marc Anderson, the first family to live in Key Colony Beach. They have all the photos of city hall showing it back in the 50s and 60s. If you look at it today, it's exactly the same footprint with the same type of structure. It could be called a historical building if you wanted to do that. But [garbled] once you're designated historically you might have to follow certain rules but on the upside there's no 50% rule to contend with on a historical building and there's another bucket of possible funding that might be available for historical buildings.

That's just my thoughts. City hall can be reopened and then the city can decide if they want. I think that's the most economical way to go. Just my opinion.

Commissioner Foster: Ed, I've got a question for you. There's been conversation about voids under Marble Hall. Is Marble Hall settled as a floating pad or is it pin piled?

Borysiewicz: Right now, the Marble Hall floor is like a stilted house. It has pin piles all underneath it holding that slab up.

Commissioner Foster: So do I care about the voids underneath it?

Borysiewicz: I wouldn't care about it.