Sci-Tech Center between a rock and hard place with building issue
Oct. 19—WATERTOWN — The laws of gravity have become pronounced at the Sci-Tech Center building, causing a safety issue resulting in the front of the structure to be closed off to pedestrian traffic.
When Sci-Tech executive director Stephen A. Karon arrived to open the building this past Saturday, he was greeted by two city-placed barriers on the sidewalk in front of the building.
The cause was some concrete pieces from a lintel above a window that fell to the sidewalk. A lintel is a beam placed across the openings windows and doors.
"The building isn't condemned, so they can use it," city code enforcement supervisor Dana P. Aikins said on Tuesday. "But there's a safety concern here, and that's what this is about."
The situation presents a stumbling block for the cash-strapped facility as it attempts to carry on with its mission of being "A Playground for Your Mind." In the best case scenario, an antidote would involve someone skilled in working with cement and concrete and willing to do pro-bono work.
"We're open, but we obviously need to mitigate it, and quickly," said Sci-Tech director Stephen A. Karon.
The facility, usually staffed by Mr. Karon, is open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays, with additional hours on some holidays and school breaks.
Mr. Karon, who draws no salary as the volunteer Sci-Tech director, has dedicated his life to science museums. He became director of Sci-Tech, which opened in 1983, in 2008. He was the founding director of what became the Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science & Technology, or MOST, in Syracuse in 1981, and he served as executive director of MOST for more than 20 years. Except for a two-year stint in the Army where he was assigned to Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland, he's worked all his life in science museums.
The Sci-Tech Center pays a mortgage on its building. A few years ago, it raised funds to repair its roof. The brick building, built in approximately 1911, originally housed a plumbing and heating company. Its third floor was the meeting space for the Joe Spratt Post of the Grand Army of the Republic, a civic group consisting of Civil War veterans. Sci-Tech moved into the building in 1993, with exhibits for children and adults.
Mr. Karon said that it appears that not much more, if anything, could fall from the lintel that has caused the current problem.
"But there are three others that have cracks," he said. "We need to get all of them. My guess is that it's not a super-complicated task. Obviously, in the best of both worlds, we'd have someone come in and put them back in the original shape. But for us, especially with our budget, that's impossible. I think the logical thing is to simply remove the cracked concrete from the ones that have cracks and to basically make it safe, and by doing that, with nothing to fall in the future."
The Sci-Tech Center didn't have any luck in the past few years in its applications for Downtown Revitalization Initiative funds or pandemic relief funding.
"We had a number of proposals that were passed over," Mr. Karon said. "We had hoped some of the downtown redevelopment funds would go to Sci-Tech."
Several projects were forwarded as funding options, including an elevator to give access to upper floors, a series of new exhibits and to create additional egress on the currently closed third floor to satisfy building codes.
Sci-Tech recently began plans to re-open its second floor, containing its Children's Discovery Room and various exhibits, which has been closed since the start of the pandemic.
"We're still going to proceed with that, but this is going to make it a little bit more complex," Mr. Karon said of the fallen concrete situation, and the search for a remedy.
How to Help
If interested in aiding the Sci-Tech Center in its solution to the fallen concrete, contact Mr. Karon at the center at 315-788-1340, or write to scitech@scitechcenter.org. People may also stop by at 154 Stone St. on Saturdays between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.
