Flooded out on Main Street

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October 2, 2008

Dentist office closed by new-found water issue

By Bethany Bray

Flooded out of his office, a Main Street dentist is sharing office space temporarily with two other professionals generous enough to open their doors.

Charles McQuade's office below Starbucks at 10 Main St. has flooded four times since July. Last week, the dentist chairs there sat in several inches of water as pumps and vacuums failed to keep up with the inflow. McQuade, who opened his bottom-floor office in 1995, says he had never seen flooding until the Main Street construction began.

"We've never had water like that, before July," said McQuade. "Totally destructive."

McQuade and Tom Belhumeur, owner of the Barnard Building, said they believe the flooding has been caused by a faulty storm drain catch basin on McQuade's side in front of the 10 Main St. building, or possibly a faulty pipe leading to the basin.

"It's coming from the storm drain," Belhumeur said. "This all happened when they dug up the sidewalks."

Town Manager Buzz Stapczynski and Public Works director Jack Petkus made several visits to the flooded office last week, trying to find the cause of the water. Workers from Newport Construction, the Nashua, N.H.-based construction company working as the Main Street Project contractor, have also visited the building to look at the problem.

Friday afternoon, construction crews sealed the storm drain, which sits in front of Kabloom Florist, with waterproof sealant, said Petkus. On Saturday, they put some dye on the curb, which was washed into the storm drain by the rain. The dye never showed up in McQuade's office.

Crews also replaced the pipe leading to the storm drain, in case a joint was faulty, he said.

"So far, whatever the leak was has appeared to stop," said Petkus on Tuesday. "Right now, the problem seems to be resolved ... We know where it's leaking in, but we don't know where it's coming from. Water finds different ways of getting in. There's no definitive answer."

Newport Construction could not be reached for comment for this story; messages left at their Park Street office in Andover were not returned.

McQuade's office will be totally renovated. Walls, carpet, floors and cabinets affected by the flood water will be replaced. McQuade will be displaced at least three weeks, he said.

Of the several businesses on the lower level of 10 Main St., McQuade's dentist office was the only one flooded.

Over the weekend, a hole was cut in the floor of McQuade's office and a sump pump installed.

"It was continually pumping water over the weekend," he said. "That whole bottom floor, all those businesses would have been ruined (if not for the pump)."

As they renovate the water-damaged office, McQuade said he'll be working with Belhumeur to claim damages with insurance.

"You can never measure (the loss). It's not just the monetary loss, it's the whole emotional loss of what you have to go through with this. But we'll be rising from the ashes," he said.

A week of water

McQuade and his wife, Suzanne, began pumping out water most recently on Sunday, Sept. 21, trying to keep their carpets dry. Despite the work of an industrial cleaning company using fans, pumps and water vacuums, the water kept coming.

"This is beyond emotionally what we can handle," said Suzanne McQuade on Friday afternoon, Sept. 26, as she watched workmen come in and out of the office in rubber boots. "Entire families come here (as patients). This disruption doesn't help anyone.

"We don't know how many hours we'll be here, watching this," said Suzanne, wearily sitting down on a large fan. "Each truck takes away 100 gallons of water at a time, and we've had truck, after truck, after truck."

After several days of steady rain, McQuade decided to move out of his office, and has been treating patients out of Thomas and Jeffrey Leonard's orthodontics office on Chestnut Street and Andover Family Dentistry on Barnard Street.

"They have been very gracious in helping me out," said McQuade.

Petkus noted that rust was found behind the walls in McQuade's office when wallboard was pulled away, indicating that some amount of moisture had been present there for some time.

Contacting McQuade

Although displaced from a flooded office, Andover dentist Charles McQuade can still be contacted by calling his office phone number, 978-470-8855.

McQuade's office staff is checking messages, he said, and will reschedule any appointments for the two offices in town he's using temporarily.