Flood caused by faulty sprinkler closes King Street Centre in Shelburne

SHELBURNE, N.S. — Cleanup continues at the King Street Centre in Shelburne after a faulty sprinkler head pumped water into the building for a number of hours on Dec. 7 before the Shelburne Fire Department was dispatched to investigate the alarm.
The faulty sprinkler head was located in the staff office for the Community Action Program. 
“They are the ones who have been compromised the worst,” said Susan Elliott, who runs Little People’s Place childcare centre, also located in the building.
“The flood started in their office so everything in their office is destroyed. Then the water leaked out from there and flooded the whole place. For us there was minimal damage” other than to the flooring.
Built in the 1950s, the King Street Centre was once the town’s elementary school. Owned by the Town of Shelburne, it is home to a number of programs and services to families in Shelburne County. 
Elliott estimates at least 50 families use Little People’s Place preschool and school-age programs offered at the King Street Centre. 
“For us it’s a loss of income,” she said. “We’re losing $700, $800, $900 a day every day we’re closed, plus it’s a such an inconvenience for parents.”
The town is hoping to have the building reopened by Jan. 6. 
“We certainly are going to make every effort to see it reopened,” said Mayor Karen Mattatall. “It’s such an important facility in the community. There are lots and lots of working people that depend on the daycare and after-school programs.”
The repairs, however, could be costly. 
“The potential cost of bringing that building back to useable shape could be up to $75,000,” said Mattatall. 
The cost and the timeline for reopening the building “comes down to whether or not asbestos abatement will be required,” said town CAO Darren Shupe. “Due to the age of the building, asbestos was used in the original construction in the wallboards and floor tiles. The flood caused by the sprinkler system subjected portions of the walls and floors to water for about 10 hours before the cleanup could begin. The restoration company, FirstOnSite, has been aggressively working to limit the damage by drying out the building as much as they can to try and avoid having to replace asbestos materials.”
Shupe said if the town is required to remove asbestos wallboards, the timeline and costs will increase. 
“Due to the extent of damage and the cost of restoration work, we expect to utilize our insurance deductible of $25,000.”
In the meantime, the town is working with the affected tenants to try to come up with interim solutions.
“It’s a very old building and it’s difficult to feel good about throwing money into a building that old, however, the programming that goes on in there is so important, we will do whatever we can to make sure programming continues,” said Mattatall.
The town did look into the possibility of building a new King Street Centre with the help of funding from senior levels of government but the price tag was too much, said Mattatall. 
“That’s not to say there might not be new opportunities,” she said, adding there is a potential that funding may be coming available for new buildings that support daycares and net zero carbon buildings.
“Childcare to me is something that is very crucial to continuing to grow your community if you want working people here,” said Mattatall.  
“The advantage of a new building is we would be able to dispose of several very old buildings. There would be reduced insurance rates, maintenance costs and operational costs … we’ll do what we have to do but it makes more sense to have a new building than continuing to put money in the old one.”