Building Inspector urges oversight of TOMVAC building

By Mark Reynolds
Posted 12/4/19

Marlborough Building Inspector Tom Corcoran told the Town Board that they need to more closely monitor the activities taking place at the TOMVAC building. He pointed out that the board did not …

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Building Inspector urges oversight of TOMVAC building

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Marlborough Building Inspector Tom Corcoran told the Town Board that they need to more closely monitor the activities taking place at the TOMVAC building. He pointed out that the board did not approve a Recreation Director in the budget but reminded them that recreational programs go on in the building with little or no regulation; Joe Wiles schedules a boot camp fitness program and a Zumba Fit Club is run by Kattya, both for profit businesses. Corcoran said they are scheduled to use the building for two hours on three days a week, which they do go beyond, and materials are being stored in a space that violates the town fire code. In addition, the kitchen area is being used as a retail store.

“The storage room is loaded with stuff again. They pay for Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday and we changed the locks that cost the town hundreds of dollars. They still have access to the locks and he [Joe Wiles] is there on Monday,” Corcoran said. “The Town Board approved Marlborough Youth Cheerleading on Monday, Wednesday and Friday opposite the days they [Zumba and Wiles] use the space and the cheerleaders were recently thrown out on Monday because someone was there.”

Corcoran stressed that TOMVAC is a town owned community center that needs to be supervised.

“We need somebody scheduling, somebody looking at it, collecting the money and seeing that it’s done. I’m asking for them to obey the signs so they don’t burn the place down and to stop drilling holes in the walls or rafters and hanging things without engineers looking at it or asking if they can do it; that’s all I’m asking and it hasn’t happened,” Corcoran said. “I’ve been begging you guys for months and I was hoping at the beginning of this year that we would figure this out.”

Corcoran encouraged the Town Board, “to find some money and get somebody in charge of TOMVAC because tomorrow I’m going to have to tape it off and nobody is going to be allowed for Zumba.”

In a subsequent interview, Corcoran said the day after the board meeting materials were removed from the storage area but still have to remove what they drilled into the rafters.

Councilman Scott Corcoran pointed out that Wiles was allowed to use the space on Mondays and that the youth cheerleaders had to be rescheduled. Upon further discussion Supervisor Al Lanzetta admitted that he and Scott Corcoran both knew about this Monday arrangement.

“It’s our bad I guess,” he said, adding that he was not aware of the fire code violations or the drilling of holes.

Councilman Allan Koenig called the situation with Wiles and Zumba, “abuse, after abuse after abuse. We’ve had to chase them around for the money, then we put them on a schedule and now we have conflicting schedules because somebody took it upon themselves to just go and change the night. This has got to stop because it is a town building and there needs to be a semblance of control. We keep going back to them saying you’ve got to do this and yes we’ll do it and three months later we’re back to the same conversation.”

As a volunteer fireman Koenig said drilling into trusses can weaken an entire roof structure.

“A truss roof is dependent on every single truss that is underneath that roof. If one truss fails, more than likely eight or nine are going to fail. That’s how firemen get killed all the time,” he said.

Lanzetta thanked Tom Corcoran for bringing this to the board’s attention.

“I know what you’re saying. We have to control it a little bit better, talk about the money and make sure that all of their garbage is out of that room and that kitchen. Then we’ll address the issue of drilling into the trusses; that can’t be allowed,” he said.