Thursday, September 1, 2011 Last updated: Thursday September 1, 2011, 6:20 PM
BY JAMES QUIRK
STAFF WRITER
The Record
KEVIN R. WEXLER/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Rocco Gioffre of Pow-R-Save surveys the club's basement, surrounded by water-damaged items.
Almost everything in the basement and first floor of the club must be discarded because of contamination from the Saddle River’s sewage-laced floodwaters, which were as deep as 4 feet on the first floor, beginning Sunday, Nardino said. The toxic muck ruined everything from a rock climbing wall donated by Wyatt Pharmaceutical in 2008 to the $55,000 basketball floor donated by the Toyota Project Rebound initiative in 2007.
Staff members said the Boys & Girls Club more than 20 feet of water filled the building at one point.
“The water just got so high, it contaminated everything — it touched everything,” Nardino said. “And I have kids here — I’m not taking any chances with contamination.”
The Lodi Fire Department has helped pump water from the building since Monday.
The deep end of the pool was still flooded with sewage Thursday. The thick sludge has to be pumped out manually before the pool walls can be sanitized, Development Director Shane Sudol said.
Water had been pumped out of the first floor by Wednesday, but the floor surfaces were still covered with dark brown mud slicks a day later. The game room and arts and crafts room were piled high with ruined furniture and supplies. Workers tore down ceiling tiles and broke waterlogged foosball and billiard tables apart with hammers to be brought to a large dumpster outside.
The club’s staff wants to quickly restore at least part of the building so that bingo, the main revenue-maker for the club, can resume as soon as possible, Sudol said. But that effort is an uphill battle. Power is intermittent throughout the building, and the elevator car to the second and third floors is under water.
The broad scope of the damage leaves the club’s future Club uncertain. Nardino said insurance will not cover all of the repairs. And he is not counting on relief money from the federal government. Nardino applied for FEMA funding after the April 2007 nor’easter wreaked havoc on the building, cracking the gym floor and flooding its basement with sewage. He was denied a year later, he said.
About $800,000 in damage to the game room, computer room, pool and basketball court was paid for with insurance refunds, economic development loans, grants and donations, such as the Toyota Project Rebound initiative, a partnership with the automaker, WBNA and the New Jersey Nets. Nardino said he covered the remainder of repair costs with loans from the Small Business Association, but was unsure whether he would be able to do that again this year.
The Boys & Girls Club has been a fixture in Lodi since 1960, and currently works with 730 children, according to staff. It is also located in one of the most flood-prone locations in Lodi, with a large parking lot that abuts the Saddle River, off Passaic Avenue.
Flooding has damaged the building 10 times in
the 15 years that Nardino has worked there, he said.
Taking a break from the work inside, Nardino leaned against a side
entrance railing and stared out at the Saddle River, still swollen from
Irene.
“They have to dredge this thing,” he said, pointing to the water. “I don’t have a fighting chance with this river. I have sleepless nights every time it rains.”
Checks can be mailed and made payable to:
Boys & Girls Clubs of Lodi/Hackensack
Attn: Shane Sudol
460 Passaic Avenue
Lodi, NJ 07644
shane.sudol@bgcoflodi.org
more photos............... http://www.meetup.com/scuba-nj/photos/3152682/
