May 15--BLUFFTON -- Yellow police crime tape stretches across the black iron gated walkway in the front, while another piece encircles a back grassed lot Wednesday at Bluffton Town Hall.
Written on sheet of paper taped to the front door is "Closed: Water damage." A village official said the building would likely be closed the rest of this week but hopefully would be opened beginning Monday.
Officers tracked the culprit Tuesday night to a fire sprinkler on the third floor gushing between 1,500 and 2,000 gallons of water. Police officers received a call from the buildings' alarm company at 10:04 p.m. and when the two officers arrived they found water soaking the wood floor on the third floor, which serves council chambers and is often used as community meeting room.
"Another officer beat me here and radioed me and told me a sprinkler was spraying water on the third floor," Sgt. Matt Oglesbee said. "I came up here and water was flowing everywhere. As soon I checked this, I walked back down to the second floor where our offices are and they were filling up with water so we just tried to salvage what we can paperwise and clean the desks off, save the computers and dodge the falling ceiling tiles."
He said he knew the situation was bad when he stepped onto the wood floor of the council chambers and "water was coming out of the floor and the door was shut and it was starting to go under the door and into the lobby." At one time Tuesday, there was between 1 and 1.5 inches of water on the floor.
Bluffton Police Chief Rick Skilliter said the single fire sprinkler was dumping water for only 15 to 20 minutes before he and another officer determined there was no fire on the third and a fourth floor and could shut off the water. The water damaged all three floors, soaking carpets on the first two floors and requiring the wood floor on the third floor to be replaced.
"We are currently without telephones, without Internet and we hope to have those up and running either late today or tomorrow," Skilliter said of the building, which houses administration, the Police Department and a meeting room. "We will be closed here for at least the rest of this week while the clean-up work is undergoing.
"We had several people schedule graduation parties over the next several weeks and we probably won't be able to accommodate those folks at least in the short term," he said, noting people who have planned to use the room should begin to find alternative locations in the case the room is unavailable.
He estimated it may be the end of June before activities can resume on the third floor. Village Council, which is scheduled to meet Monday night, may be moved to the library or the high school but that will be determined at a later date.
Skilliter said the situation is further complicated because Mayor Dennis Gallant is resigning his post because he is taking a job in Sandusky and Council President Mitch Kingsley does not want to be mayor.
Skilliter said people can still use 911 for emergencies because the village uses Allen County Sheriff's Office dispatchers to handle their calls. He said police officers would continue to "do limited operations throughout in our current environment."
The police chief also said utility bills may be sent out later because they are printed in the Utility Department. While the computers throughout the Bluffton Town Hall are being evaluated by information-technology personnel, computers with utility records are kept off-site.
The village was set to use a new billing program starting in July, but village administrators are inquiring if the software provider may permit them to use the program in June with the issuance of the current bills.
Skilliter said fire sprinkler system officials could not at this time determine why the sprinkler activated.
Tonya Meyer, the director of the Bluffton Senior Citizen Center, termed the water damage to the building as "tragic."
"It was a beautiful building and we put so much time and energy into it," said Meyer, who has lived in Bluffton for more than 20 years.
In 2007 and 2008, the building, originally constructed in 1887, was renovated. After nearly $3 million and 13 months in renovation, the century-old building with modern conveniences reopened in 2009. Local voters supported the renovations with a 0.25 percent income tax for 10 years.
"I hope the insurance covers the damages," Meyer said. "The building is a great asset to the town."
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