MONTPELIER — In July’s flooding, an estimated 9,000 gallons of water poured into the first floor of the Vermont Arts Council’s State Street building. Since then, the council’s 12 staff members have been forced to work remotely or in borrowed office spaces, with no end date in sight.
“We’ve been in that building since the ’60s. It’s a really special place,” said Amy Cunningham, the council’s deputy director. “It’s sad not to have a space available and be together.”
On Tuesday, a group of lawmakers gathered at the Statehouse for a briefing on flood damages and the future of state-owned buildings, including the arts council’s offices at 136 State St.
Jennifer Fitch, the commissioner of the state’s Department of Buildings and General Services, and Joseph Aja, the department’s director of design and construction, told lawmakers that a total of 19 state buildings were affected and most basements were completely flooded, causing damage to technical equipment and electrical systems. All but six of the buildings have since reopened.
The Pavilion Building, where the governor’s office is located, is among those that remain closed. The historic building was filled with 180,000 gallons and more than six feet of water during the flood. Although the Vermont Historical Society recently reopened its museum on the building’s first floor, the Buildings and General Services’ Design & Construction Division estimates that the governor and his staff will continue to conduct business from Agency of Transportation offices in Berlin until the new legislative session starts in January.
The neighboring Vermont Supreme Court also housed thousands of gallons of water. While it technically reopened on Monday, its doors remained shut due to an information technology update this week.
Fitch emphasized the need to “build back better,” to make buildings more resistant to future floods.
“It’s a very long process of collaborating and going back and forth,” Fitch said. “There’s a lot of different stakeholders.”
The state has so far spent $22 million on clean-up efforts related to state buildings — most of which went to Servpro, a cleanup and restoration service — as part of the first phase of the recovery plan.
“The second phase is what we’re doing right now, which is putting buildings on temporary power systems so that we can get buildings up and running again,” Fitch said.
As the state is still deciphering its next steps and how to maximize Federal Emergency Management Agency money, it remains unclear just when the remaining buildings will reopen. However, a row of four buildings located on the south side of State Street — including the arts council’s home and a state-run visitors center — are not expected to open soon.
Fitch told lawmakers that FEMA funding could be jeopardized if the state were to make any permanent repairs, or what the federal agency might consider to be permanent repairs, on the flooded buildings now.
“Any buildings that were impacted on the first floor, we’re not putting back flooring or walls at this point in time because, again, we don’t want to jeopardize our ability to leverage FEMA funding,” she said.
When water inundated its building, much of the arts council’s artwork was spared by the floodwater, including art in the landscaped sculpture garden, where in May, the council launched a show focused on climate change and housing. The display featured timber frame gates with large stained glass transoms. Most avoided damage, but a nearby bench sculpture — ironically named “Rinse, Repeat” — floated a mile down the river before it was recovered.
The council’s building is considered historic, adding to the layers of complexity related to the capitol complex’s rebuilding. While not every building is labeled as such, many contain structures that contribute to the building’s historic value, such as the roof of Vermont’s Office of Veteran Affairs, according to Fitch.
For now, the Vermont Arts Council offices will remain stripped of any flooring or walls and Cunningham estimates that the staff will continue to work remotely until the spring.
“The state has been communicative, but has emphasized that this will be a long and complicated process,” Cunningham said.
Correction: The title and the description of the art piece that floated downriver during the July flood was incorrect in an earlier version of this story.
