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City spent more than $1 million a decade ago on the 87-year-old building.

ROCKLAND — Water leaking into the 87-year-old Flanagan Community Center has resulted in significant damage inside and outbreaks of mold, the recreation director told City Councilors Monday evening, May 24.

Director Donald Prescott said that until exterior work is done — at an estimated cost of $261,000 not including roof work —  expanded programs are not possible in the building.

“It’s crumbling right in front of us,” Prescott said of the building.

Councilors questioned whether it made sense to put more money into the building instead of looking at constructing a new recreation center.

“Should we be throwing more money at this building?” Councilor Louise MacLellan-Ruf asked. “As taxpayers, should we be looking at a new building?”

Prescott made his report to Councilors as part of their review of capital improvement requests for the 2022-2023 budget. Councilors had planned on giving preliminary approval May 23 to the budget but the deliberations went on for more than two-and-a-half hours before the meeting was recessed. The budget talks are scheduled to resume Wednesday evening, May 25 at 5:30.

Prescott said repairs to the interior would be a waste of time and effort until the exterior repairs are made which include the roof and brickwork. He displayed a slideshow which pointed out the extent of problems inside the building from water intrusion.

Money for repairs would have to go before voters, possibly in November.

In November 2011, Rockland residents voted 1,107 to 656 to borrow up to $675,000 for improvements to the recreation center that resulted in the repointing of all the exterior bricks and work along the edges of the roof to prevent leaking. There was also a trench dug around the exterior of the building to apply sealant to the foundation and to install proper drainage to prevent water intrusion from the lower level. The game room was also torn up and received a new slab and then a new wooden floor to stop moisture from coming into that section of the building.

That work was done in 2012 with the city reporting after that the building was “bone dry.”

The 2012 work followed $661,000 in renovations in 2009 and 2010 that resulted in the center being closed for eight months. That work consisted of installation of a new gym floor, new retractable bleachers, new locker rooms constructed in the space previously occupied by a racquetball court, installation of a sprinkler system, a new boiler and replacement of an underground oil tank.

There has been nearly $20,000 spent since then on various roof repairs.

The current water problems in the building are the same that were reported prior to the 2012 work including water leaking in through the upper level space used by the Rockland District Nursing Association and then leaking down to the basement level where the youth game room is located.

The building was constructed in 1935 through the Works Progress Administration which was a federal program created during the Great Depression to put people to work.

MacLellan-Ruf said the building is not sound from an architectural standpoint and pointed out one flaw is the flat roof that allows water to pond and then leak inside.

This 50-gallon bucket can be nearly filled after a couple of rainstorms, the recreation director said.

Damage and mold shown inside the building. Photo courtesy of City of Rockland

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