The scene on the morning after Sandy hit: The fractured tree in the foreground damaged the north end of the schoolhouse. —Press photo
Preserving a historical building comes at a price, especially after a tree crashes on top of it during the middle of a hurricane.
That’s what happened to the Peter Parley Schoolhouse — better known as the Little Red Schoolhouse — last fall when Hurricane Sandy ripped through town and rendered the 257-year-old building inoperable for almost an entire year with damages to the building’s walls, roof and chimney.
The mini-museum, usually open to the public once a month in the warm season, has been closed since last September.
Lake Candlewood Building and Renovation LLC., of Bethel, was awarded the construction contract from the town in July, but didn’t start repair work on the schoolhouse until Tuesday morning.
“Nothing happened at the site for a while — the project was in limbo — and it reached a point where the town was ready to move on to the next bidder,” said Jerry Gay, the town’s purchasing director. “We wanted to know if they were ever going to come and they did today, so it should go smoothly from here.”
The town’s insurance will cover the cost — $29,823. Mr. Gay received a preliminary estimate in December and bids went out to contractors at the end of the spring with the goal of securing a low-priced bid that figured near the budgeted allowance of $30,000.
Three other companies— Roche Inc. of Ridgefield, Caldwell & Walsh Building Construction of Sandy Hook, and Bailey Restoration Corp. of Ridgefield — placed bids of $49,000, $57,945, and $64,480, respectively.
Besides fitting the town’s budget, the contractor needed to show an understanding of the building’s delicacy.
“The town suffered a lot when Hurricane Sandy hit and this is one of those repair projects that took a little more time because it’s a very old building that requires certain approved specifications because of its history,” said Nancy Selander of the Ridgefield Historical Society, which oversees the town-owned building. “We are excited to see the building permit signs in the windows finally.”
The schoolhouse, located on West Lane, typically hosts open houses for people in the summer months. However, its doors remained shut this summer — for the first time anyone from the historic society can remember — as the town waited on its contractor to start work.
Mr. Gay said that Lake Candlewood Building and Renovation LLC. was delayed on starting work because it had to wrap up other contracted projects.
“We didn’t want to move onto the second bidder, so this really worked out well for us,” Mr. Gay said Tuesday afternoon. “Nobody likes to spend more money than they have to.”
Mr. Gay said Town Engineer Charlie Fisher has gone over the plans with the contractors and that the low price was one of many factors in the town’s decision to go ahead with Lake Candlewood Building and Renovation LLC.
He estimates the project to take around a month to complete.
“It’s a straightforward repair to the walls and the roof,” he explained. “We are going to closely watch this project, though, because we want to keep the nature of this historic building and we know everything has to be done carefully with how we put it back.
“Our goal is to have it look closest as we possible can to how it was before Sandy.”
The fallen tree tore a small hole in the chimney, on the back side of the school, and pulled it away from the building, leaving the school vulnerable to the weather outside.
“The tree limb stayed on top of the building for a few days and the building did get opened to the weather,” Mr. Gay said. “Luckily that exposure didn’t create any further damage to the inside.”