SHENANDOAH - A section of the outside eastern wall of the J.W. Cooper Community Center collapsed Monday, leaving a gaping hole in place of a window at the former second-floor classroom.
The collapse occurred after 8 a.m. near the northeast corner of the building, sending bricks, glass and the mangled metal frame of the window to the road and sidewalk along North Lehigh Street near the Lloyd Street intersection. There were no injuries.
Despite another setback to the restoration project at the former J.W. Cooper High School building, owner Kent Steinmetz said the project to restore the four-story landmark structure will continue.
"We're going to save the building no matter what," Steinmetz said. "And I think we have enough gumption in town to save it."
Steinmetz is grateful for the help and cooperation provided by the borough in keeping the dream alive to save the historic school.
The building, constructed in 1918, was purchased in 2009 by Steinmetz, with plans to make it a multi-use center for shopping, culture and a community center. The downturn in the economy slowed renovation work due to lack of funds, especially through the cutback in state funding avenues, and the lack of handicap access in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act closed the doors to the public about two years ago.
Borough resident Paul Vernitsky walked by the building along Lloyd Street on Monday and was not surprised by what happened.
"I walked through here yesterday like I do on days when it's warm out. You could see at the ledge that it was ready to come right out. It was bulging out," Vernitsky said. "I've been watching this for years. They put those beams up on the outside corner. You can see it's coming apart on the corner with all the water running through there for years."
Borough police officers, firefighters and an ambulance crew responded to the incident. The area was secured with yellow caution tape to close Lloyd Street for one block from the White Street intersection, and Lehigh Street from Lloyd to Centre street. Residents on those streets were asked to remove their vehicles.
Patrolman Travis Bowman was at the Shenandoah Valley Elementary School for traffic control as the students arrived when he received the call about 8:30 a.m. from the county communications center after it received calls about the collapse.
"We got the call after it just fell. Apparently, there had been a car stopped at the stop sign about five minutes before it fell," Bowman said.
Borough Manager Joseph Palubinsky, Alfred Benesch & Co. senior project manager Ronald D. Krolick and Steinmetz enter the building for structural evaluation, which showed that the building is structurally sound.
"When we found out about what happened, we immediately called our engineer and they (Benesch) sent up a structural engineer to evaluate the building and we're relying on his opinion and recommendations because that's his business," Palubinsky said.
"According to the engineer, he said it seems structurally sound as far as the steel superstructure," Steinmetz said after the building tour with Krolick and Palubinsky. "It's been such a bad winter with the freezing and thawing and freezing. We're going to take down all that is loose and Lloyd Street will stay closed just to be sure. We're going to have a trailer here soon to clean up the bricks and debris."
Steinmetz said that it was planned that the section of the building where the collapse occurred was going to be removed for the installation of an elevator.
"Being that the elevator was going to be in that corner and it (the wall) was going to be removed anyway, it's not the end of the world," Steinmetz said. "That's my silver lining. I'm trying to be optimistic."
Steinmetz said that a crane is scheduled to arrive next week to re-point and tuck the bricks, which will seal walls from moisture. When the crane arrives from Dennison Contracting, tearing down the effected area will begin.
"With the steel superstructure the way it is, there is no fear of any additional problems," Steinmetz said. "The brick that we salvage we're going to reuse."