This doesn't bode well for their EL SDP45.... :( Museum in a crisis, leader says The transportation museum needs money, volunteers and support, its new director says. Kevin Kittredge The Virginia Museum of Transportation, which lost part of its roof and changed directors in the space of one tumultuous week, is a museum in crisis, new executive director Bev Fitzpatrick said. Fitzpatrick, who took over the helm of the troubled museum from former executive director Bob Dills after a storm ripped off part of its new roof July 19, said the museum needs money, volunteers and support. "Is it going to kill us? No, it's not." But Fitzpatrick also said, "We're not well-heeled. We don't have an endowment. We need help." Although the roof was insured, museum officials fear some related costs may not be covered. They learned on Friday that lost revenues will not be reimbursed, Fitzpatrick said. The museum has been closed since the storm hit. He also said despite the damage to the museum's roof, the majority of its collections and rolling stock can still be seen safely, and the museum hopes to reopen those areas to the public soon. Also this week, the president of the roofing company that installed the museum's roof a year ago vigorously defended the company's work. The roof work was never approved by city building officials, and encapsulated asbestos was found underneath. Fitzpatrick said the asbestos cleanup could begin Monday. Scott Moore, president of Portsmouth-based Roofing and Restoration Inc., said the new museum roof was built to design specifications from Spectrum Design of Roanoke and approved by the museum. The design called for a new roof to be constructed over the existing roof, and for the asbestos to be left where it was. "They elected to encapsulate. That is a normal procedure when you're dealing with roofs and asbestos," Moore said. Moore also said the replacement roof was so firmly attached to the original roof that when the wind came, it pulled up the original roof, and theirs with it. "It's very obvious the original roof system came up with ours," he said. Moore noted that several other buildings downtown had roof damage. At least four other downtown buildings were damaged in the storm. It blew out a window at the Roanoke Higher Education Center, spurring some employees to leave offices and take refuge in hallways, said executive director Tom McKeon. Valley Boiler at 701 Salem Ave. S.W. was heavily damaged, and half of it will have to be rebuilt, said co-owner Nani Jarrell. "We think our building shifted. It was a heck of a wind." Hunter Merrill, who owns Mountain Roofing at Shenandoah Avenue and Fifth Street, said part of his building's roof also blew off. "From inside the building you can see blue sky right now," he said late Friday afternoon. Anyone who argues the museum's roof came off because it was installed improperly is wasting their energy, he said. "I don't care what was on the building, it was coming off," Merrill said. The Roanoke Times building was damaged by blowing debris from the transportation museum roof. Wind also lifted the soffit off the skywalk to the press building, said production director Chip Harris. He called the damage "minimal." Earlier news reports have noted the transportation museum's roof work was never approved by a city building official. Deputy building commissioner Neil Holland said state law requires an inspection. Asked if the lack of a final inspection could have an impact on the insurance settlement, he said, "It leaves a door open. I'm sure they're finding out." Moore said they never sought approval from the city's building inspectors for the roof because the roof architects, Spectrum Design, and manufacturer, Firestone Building Products, are the real experts. Both approved the final installation after numerous inspections, he said, and Firestone issued a warranty. He said the museum itself asked a building official to come to the site, for unknown reasons, and the official did not approve the work then because it was not complete. Moore also said a lack of approval from a building official will have no impact on the insurance settlement. "There's no sense in pointing fingers at people," he said. "This was a daggone natural disaster." Spectrum Design architect Bill Huber said if the new roof was to blame, it should have peeled away by itself without taking the old roof with it. He also said installing a new roof over an old one is a preferred practice with museums, because taking the old roof off first would leave the contents of the museum temporarily vulnerable to weather. The transportation museum also lost its executive director in the wake of the storm. Dills resigned the same day a Roanoke television station aired a report on alleged financial improprieties at the museum. Museum board president Tom Cox said he has no evidence of wrongdoing on Dills' part, and the museum will continue to employ him as a consultant. Dills has said he is battling depression and multiple sclerosis, and had planned to step down by the end of the year. Dills said in a phone message last week that leaving early "seems like the best thing to do. I do want to put my health in front of everything. I think Bev Fitzpatrick will do a good job there." Cox said he wished people would stop throwing stones and start pitching in. "The unfortunate thing in the whole mix is that this is all boiling down to a lot of rock throwing and minutiae when the museum is in the midst of a catastrophe," he said. Fitzpatrick, a city council member and one-time president of the museum board, noted the original transportation museum at Wasena Park was ruined in the flood in 1985. But the museum survived that crisis to move to its current location, and has grown enormously since then. "We absolutely believe we'll continue our progress. Our goal should be to be the best transportation museum on the East Coast," Fitzpatrick said. _____________________ Paul R. Tupaczewski IMS NAR/CaLA Implementation and Delivery Lucent Technologies 67 Whippany Road, Room 15D-116 Whippany, NJ 07981 Phone: 973-386-4966 Fax: 973-386-4147 Cell: 973-650-5871 The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List Sponsored by the ELH&TS http://www.elhts.org ------------------------------
This HTML page is © 2000-2008 Blue Moon Online System and The Railfan Network
This page and the data contained therein may not be reproduced
for any form of commercial use without the explicit permission
of J. Henry Priebe Jr. or his duly authorized agent.