Thursday, November 3, 2016

About Mr. Gumbinner 2 Ashburton building built

About Mr. Gumbinner 2 Ashburton building built

When Joe Roth was supervising the construction of the 12,000 sq. ft. building at 2 Ashburton Ave., I told him the contractor had not put reinforcing rods in the foundation. The contractor then took a barrel of nails and spread them through the concrete. When we bought the lot at 137 Alexander St., in 1968, I had Joe Roth design the building with the main entrance on the river side not the street. This had a number of advantages: the racks of stencils and skids of plates could be moved across the street and up the ramp into the factory, the offices on the second floor had windows that overlooked the Hudson River and Palisades, and visitors could park near the entrance. Our insurance company made us raise the floor level 2 feet to provide for a possible 100 year record flood. The Hudson River at Yonkers being a tidal river never floods in the usual sense but at high tide with hurricane force winds the water can be blown over the banks. This happened twice during my lifetime but the water was less than three inches deep. Because this land was on ashes which had been dumped in the river, Joe Roth had three eight inch steel pipes driven 110 to 125 feet down to the bed rock and filled with concrete where they formed the base of the columns and used grade beams. The floor was not on piles so over the years it sunk several inches. I had a wood end block floor installed in the factory area so we could shore up any machinery if the floor sunk unevenly. The staircase to the upper offices was suspended so it just required a little patching for appearance when the floor sunk.

When TOSCA and OSHA regulations became law, I took the responsibility to study them and ensure that we complied with the requirements. The inspectors who came to our plants only saw inconsequential matters such as having us put a railing in the middle of the front steps. One inspector made us lower the fire extinguishers in the plant. Another inspector had us put them back at the initial locations since the skids of materials blocked the lower level. When going around with the inspectors, I notice things which the operators were doing which I considered might cause an injury and had them corrected but were not noticed by the OSHA inspectors.