Future botique hotel?
NEWBURGH – The shoring up of floors and ceilings at Newburgh City Hall a few years ago was only meant as a stopgap measure and now, other sections of the building at 83 Broadway are facing serious structural problems.
The city wants to hire a structural engineer to determine the severity of the problems.
Assistant Fire Chief William Horton, the city’s building inspector, said floors are slanting, some windows are on the verge of popping out and the temporary beams installed previously were not meant to be a long-term solution.
“I don’t think there is going to be a catastrophic failure of the building,” Horton said. “I think there could be a localized failure to the point where we can’t come in and operate as a government. Our job is always to ask ‘what if” and if there is a failure in the building and we can’t get the computers out and we can’t get the files out, we are going to have a difficult time governing the city.”
The city council on Monday will approve the hiring of a structural engineer to determine the severity of the issues.
In the meantime, city officials will be taking a serious look at moving offices out of City Hall.
City Manager Michael Ciaravino said if that is the case, he would like to see the building sold and redeveloped as a boutique hotel.
