COHOES – The scaffolding climbs from Mohawk Street up the City Hall façade to wrap the entire historic building in a silver corset as workers prepare to replace the aging slate roof to help preserve the structure for another century.
City Hall was built in 1896. The three-story building with its five-story tower topped by a huge American flag flying 24 hours a day is a Capital Region landmark.
“They left us this historic building. They don’t build them anymore. It’s incumbent on our generation to restore it,” Mayor Bill Keeler said after he scaled the scaffolding to take a closer look.
The $1.8 million effort to restore and seal the historic slate roof from leaks is part of the city’s initiative to preserve and protect the three historic buildings – City Hall, Cohoes Public Library and Cohoes Music Hall – that it owns. Overall, the city expects to invest another $3 million to replace City Hall’s 330 drafty windows and $2 million in HVAC systems, for a total of $6.8 million in upgrades.
“This was part of a campaign promise to restore the three historic city-owned buildings,” said Keeler, sitting in his first-floor City Hall office. Keeler is running for a second four-year term this November.
Keeler’s Restore Historic Cohoes program has attracted state grants for its projects. Keeler said Assemblyman John T. McDonald III, D-Cohoes, a former mayor, and state Sen. Neil Breslin, D-Albany, who represented the city before redistricting of state legislative districts, have been strong supporters and instrumental in the city winning grants.
Safespan of Latham has spent most of the last month erecting the scaffolding to get workers up to the roof. Titan Roofing of Albany is handling the roof work far above street level. In the coming weeks, the roofing work is expected to pick up its pace.
When the roof is fixed, the city hopes to put behind itself a…
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