Lewiston Town Board hears of roof leaks at library

LPD chief reports on mailbox thefts

By Terry Duffy

Editor-in-chief

Lewiston Town Board members received some unsettling news about the Lewiston Public Library at its Monday work session.

Library Executive Director Jill Palermo, accompanied by board member Fred Caso, visited and advised Supervisor Steve Broderick and the board on some much-needed roof repairs. Caso said the library, located at 305 S. Eighth St., in the Village of Lewiston, is contending with “five significant roof leaks.”

Library officials gave the town a damage figure of $5,000 in preliminary repair costs for inside the structure.

“We have more tarps on our books in the library this past week than we’ve ever imagined,” Caso said. He noted the leaks have been affecting library operations for weeks due to the extreme cold, and library officials are fearing a warmup will only make matters worse.

Broderick and town Building Department officials visited the library recently and found the problem was much worse than feared.

“They got up on ladders and stuck their heads through the ceiling tiles and identified, unfortunately, more problems than we ever thought we had,” Caso said. He attributed the problem to construction issues when the library was built. The library was constructed in the early 2000s and had its formal charter issued in 2008.

Caso said the library is now in the process of contacting its insurance carrier and contractors.

“The building’s old and it’s leaking like a sieve,” he said.

Caso said Palermo has been struggling to get a handle on the situation “and it hasn’t been easy.”

Palermo said the library is attempting to address the leaks the best it can.

“They put tarps up; we have a lot of damp carpets, even there’s water on some of the walls,” she said.

Palermo said the library has been contending with poor insolation issues underneath the roofing from the time of its construction, which has worsened the leak problem. She and Building/Code Enforcement Officer Tim Masters contacted the original roofing contractor with mixed results.

“It kind of sounds like they don’t want to do anything more at the library,” Palermo said. She added a second contractor has since been contacted.

“We’re just on that list, waiting,” Palermo said. “I just think, at this point with everyone having probably roof issues, that all these companies are so busy, and (we) just have to wait for them to respond.”

Broderick said the library “is a municipal library” and that the town would fund any work.

“We’re going to try and help out as much as we can,” he said. “These are all energy costs, which we can use our town energy fund through NYPA and, hopefully with Ed (Zimmerman) and Tim going up there, they saw some major issues, even with insulation.

He noted town officials determined the building had “design flaws” from the time of its inception.

“We’ll follow up, and if we come up with a solution, hopefully it’s not incredibly expensive and we’re able to help,” Broderick said.

Mail theft

•Lewiston Police Department Chief Michael Salada reported on a “busier-than-normal January” with more than 1,300 calls and 45 arrests. He noted a new problem is affecting residents: stolen mail from mailboxes – specifically, “checks being stolen from mailboxes and being cashed.”

“We do have several suspects for the several cases that we took, but we’re encouraging residents bring (lost/stolen/discarded/found checks) into the post office or hand it to the mail carrier.”

Salada advised residents not to return the checks to mailboxes.

Essex Homes

Attorney for the town Alfonso Marra Bax updated the board on changes with the Essex Homes development on Upper Mountain/Bronson roads above Lewiston Hill. He said the town is now dealing with adjustments with former developers the Rubino brothers, following the town’s appointment of Mike Weiss as Lewiston highway superintendent.

“The plan was, for all respective purposes, different than the one that’s before the town today,” Bax said. “There were a number of formalities that the developer should have done (with) stormwater and drainage district. They did not. The second developer came in and took over. The project made some changes.”

Bax continued, “For the challenge perspective, the original proposal was kind of off the table. Tim Masters and I had spoken a number of times, trying to get the new developer to pick up the pieces where the old developer left off.”

Bax said the current developer “advised me they’re more than willing to get that (drainage) district formalized and adopted and filed with the county clerk’s office. They want us to redo the public hearing (for) purposes of that drainage district.”

Following some discussion, the Town Board approved a public hearing on the matter to be held at 6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 23.

Residency requirement

That will be the board’s second public hearing scheduled for the evening. Also scheduled is consideration of Local Law No. 3 of 2026, designed to establish residency requirements for the appointed office of deputy town clerk and/or deputy tax receiver.

According to Bax, the issue centers on the status of the deputy town clerk and whether or not that individual is a resident of the town and duly qualified. He said the town clerk, in a review of viable candidates for the position, identified several who qualify but who are not residents of the town.

“So, as a compromise I reached out to the Association of Towns. They said, so long as we could designate one of the clerks or deputy clerks as a resident, the others can kind of differentiate between the positions,” Bax said. “This law allows the clerk’s office to propose candidates” for the position from adjoining municipalities.

With that, the Town Board approved the hearing. It will lead off the regular monthly meeting.

For more information, visit https://www.townoflewistonny.gov/.