WHAT'S EATING CITY HALL? Building to receive facelift after water damage, termites found in walls (PHOTOS)

What originally started out as a few in-house repairs at City Hall has quickly turned into a much more expensive, time-consuming project.

“The original estimate we had to repair the damage was $34,000,” said Tim Pietenpol, the city’s public services deputy director. “The more we dug though, the more problems we found. The estimate is probably looking closer to $100,000.”

While making some basic repairs to the city clerk’s office, it was discovered that leaking windows at city hall had caused extensive damage to the stucco building — and termites had made their way into the walls.

As the walls held in moisture, the termites, which are drawn to water for nutrients, made a home and slowly began to break down the building’s wooden structure. Despite multiple tests for termites, Pietenpol said they were never detected because there was no physical evidence.

“We were originally looking at replacing five sections of the building, now the whole exterior and parts of the interior need to be replaced,” he said of the roughly 26-year-old building.

How did this happen?

Pietenpol said problems with the original construction were to blame. There was no vapor barrier installed over the plywood substrate and important steps were missed when installing the windows.

“When the stucco guy came out, he told us that he had never seen stucco applied like this before,” he said. “That was a shock to us.”

When The Log asked Pietenpol how the errors were made without someone checking off on the work, he shook his head and said he wasn’t sure.

“Well, we went back and checked the development order and it was signed by an inspector,” Pietenpol told The Log. “The company that built it signed off on it as well. We haven’t gotten too far into it yet, but we know the architect that designed it and approved it, and the company that built it are no longer in business.”

“We are all looking for a specific reason as to why this happened,” he said. “All of the players that have come into this, there is no one person where you can say ‘this is what you should have done.’ ”

Moving forward, Pietenpol said the plan is to move forward with the repairs, depending on which direction the city council chooses to go in. No money has been approved for the repairs yet.

And despite the current economic struggles, given the upcoming hurricane season, Pietenpol said that a decision needs to be made soon. Portions of city hall will be closed for repairs as the work gets completed.

“This is a lot bigger problem than we had originally anticipated,” he said. “It’s going to be a balancing act.”