The owners of the Island Theatre in Oak Bluffs, an eyesore and public safety hazard at one of the Vineyard’s busiest intersections, have pledged to launch work to shore up the building as early as this week and complete it within three weeks.
After a pair of court hearings last week, an increasingly frustrated Dukes County superior court Judge Cornelius J. Moriarty 2nd gave a lawyer for the owners until Tuesday to provide a timeline for the work and list contractors who will do the work.
Canton-based attorney Kevin C. Cain, who represents Lucky 7 Realty Trust and Hall family members who are trustees, responded Tuesday in a letter to the judge that, subject to securing housing for construction crews and ferrying their vehicles to the Island, they “reasonably anticipate that construction work on the shear walls will commence later this week and barring any unforeseen impediments the work is anticipated to conclude within three weeks from the commencement date.”
Reached by telephone, Oak Bluffs town counsel Ronald H. Rappaport called Mr. Cain’s letter “progress,” although he sought clarification about when the work would begin and evidence of signed agreements with the contractors.
“But we do regard that as progress,” Mr. Rappaport said. “And we hope not to involve the judge any further and the work will be done on time.”
Mr. Cain faced a 4 p.m. Tuesday deadline to submit the plans to Judge Moriarty, who had upbraided Mr. Cain’s clients last week when they missed an earlier deadline to provide full details of the proposed work.
In his letter, Mr. Cain, a partner at Sulloway & Hollis, said that Louis Morales, doing business as Total Restoration of Weymouth, will complete the temporary shear walls detailed in earlier plans and First Choice Quality Painting Inc. will perform the exterior painting and trim carpentry work. No cost estimate of the work was provided.
By Thursday noon, there was no evidence of work at the site.
In a phone interview Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Cain said he is hopeful that the plan filed will satisfy the concerns of the town about the old theatre.
“We have an understanding that this is a best-effort agreement,” Mr. Cain said. As for the public safety concerns about the building, he said: “I can only say that when I went in with the town building inspector and two engineers and two other guys, not one of us was wearing a hard hat . . . . my understanding is that the town’s concern about safety is not that the building without warning will blow into the street. It’s high winds that are the concern and that’s why the shear walls are being reinforced. It’s not that I totally disagree with the town . . . There is another side to the story that has not been told here, but there is no need for that argument or discussion because the work is going to get done.”
Mr. Morales and his foreman traveled to the Island last Thursday, reviewed the revised engineering plans, visited the site and submitted a quote. According to the letter, the contractors again traveled to the Island on Memorial Day to “make a more detailed assessment to assist them in determining exactly what tools and equipment would be required to complete the job. The parties reached agreement on the general terms on Monday and all materials necessary to complete the project have been ordered.”
The painting and trim work could “proceed independently” of the wall construction work, Mr. Cain said in his letter. The painting contractor is completing a job in Hyannis Port and “will bring a crew to the Island, weather permitting, within the following three weeks,” the letter said.
The town sued the building’s owners May 15, demanding that they “take the necessary steps to prevent the collapse and the attendant injury or damage to the public or nearby property.”
The theatre, which has not been in use for a decade, is “defunct, structurally unstable and neglected . . .” the court complaint said.
“The theatre’s load bearing walls are deteriorated and crumbling, its interior is rife with mold and the exterior is in extreme state of disrepair,” the town said. “The theatre is a public nuisance.”
The interior work is intended to buttress the walls that run the length of the building, with a series of interior wooden frames that run parallel to Circuit avenue. The framing will be tied into existing roof trusses and walls. The work also will include some finish carpentry and exterior painting.
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