Most Town Hall Offices Open In Southold Tuesday After Flooding

SOUTHOLD, NY — Southold Town Hall will reopen most offices Tuesday after a frozen fire suppression system in the building caused massive flooding Sunday.

According to Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell, the town clerk's office, the tax receiver's office, justice court, and the supervisor's office will be open Tuesday.

The assessor's office will remain closed, with a portion of the building still blocked off. There will be no public access, Russell said.

In addition, the grace period for the requirement of a new permit at the Southold Town transfer station will be extended from January 14 to January 16, Russell said.

In an email Monday, Russell said, of the damage, "The clean-up will be a large task. Inspections are taking place now which require assessing damage behind office walls, removing trim and portions of walls etc. Currently, the rugs, ceiling,and insulation are all being removed. We will not know the full extent until the current thorough inspection is done."

In addition, Russell said, work was being done to identify areas where there was a need to replace pipes. File cabinets were relocated to the conference room Monday, too, he said.

"We are also doing an inventory of all documents and, so far, we haven’t found damage to official documents," Russell said. "Primarily, damage was restricted to documents that are easily replaceable. We do not have an approximate cost. The ultimate cost is not limited to building damage but equipment damage."

Belfor Property Restoration was hired to do the cleanup, Russell said.

The Town Hall meeting room did not sustain any major damage, he said.

Southold Information Technology Director Lloyd Reisenberg began surveying all of the IT computer equipment, "although it may take a while to determine the extent of the damage," Russell said, adding that the insurance company was called to come survey the damage, something that will likely take place Tuesday.

Southold Town Hall was closed Monday due to a frozen fire suppression system that caused flooding in the entire east side of the building Sunday, Russell said.

Russell said while the town doesn't yet have an estimate of the cost for repairs, "We had about 2 inches of water on the floor and since it came from the fire suppression system located over the ceiling, we had damage in the ceiling, with tiles becoming waterlogged and falling," he said.

Patch photo.