Sitting atop the roof of the Research and Technology Center, a 10-inch refractor telescope was once used for research, learning and pleasure since its placement there in the early 1950s until its recent disassembly and removal from the roof over the past few years.
Left behind was the telescope’s more than thousand pound cast-iron pier, which supported the telescope and housed numerous technical instruments crucial to the telescope’s functioning. It survived the fire on R-Tech’s roof Nov. 30, but not the order from Facilities to remove it as part of the roof's cleanup.
A Post investigation found the top administrators in Facilities knew Physics and Astronomy wanted the pier removed from the roof prior to the fire but did not want it removed from the campus. However, a contractor removed and disposed of the pier after the fire.
The telescope's removal and destruction was a misunderstanding, said Harry Wyatt, associate vice president for Facilities.
"In the urgency to get the temporary roof repairs done, the metal frame that (supported) the wooden shack was charred and removed, and we believe the contractor thought that the (telescope) mount was part of that metal frame," he said, adding he believes the mount has since been "ground up."
Mike Gebeke, executive director of facilities management, said he told the contractor to "get everything out of the way" so that Facilities would have a flat roof to work with, explaining the pier's removal. The urgency stemmed from the fact a large rainstorm was projected to pass through Athens the weekend after the fire, which occurred on a Friday, Wyatt said.
The pier was bolted to a reinforced concrete structure that was slightly raised above the level of the roof, said Doug Shafer, a machinist in Physics and Astronomy, meaning it would have not been in the way of repairing the rubber roof.
"They should have conferred with someone in our department before they made that decision (to remove the mount) … because that decision they made was not their decision to make," Shafer said.
In regard to whether the pier was in the way of roof repair or was damaged, Wyatt said, "you're talking about one professional judgment versus another professional judgment, and I have no further comment on it."
Gebeke said he believes it is "wrong" to say the pier was not in the way of repairing the roof.
The department of Physics and Astronomy was hoping to eventually remove the pier, which required Facilities' assistance because of its weight. The plan was to place it in the basement of Clippinger Hall, along with the other pieces of the telescope while they awaited refurbishing, according to Shafer and David Ingram, chair of Physics and Astronomy. The Department of Physics and Astronomy had been negotiating with Facilities about how much they should pay to remove the pier from the roof.
The most recent project estimate submitted to Shafer by Joshua Kranyik, a project manager in Design and Construction, in an email on Aug. 24, estimated a cost of $7,850.00 to remove the pier from the roof, as well as demolish the structure housing them – a price Ingram and Shafer found too high for their department to pay.
All pieces of the telescope, including those housed inside the pier, had been removed from the roof and relocated to the basement of Clippinger Laboratories by the time of the fire, the Post found. Photographs taken by Mike Meyers, another machinist in Physics and Astronomy, confirm the pier was not damaged by the fire.
In email correspondence with Shafer, Kranyik said Facilities allowed Tri-State Roofing/Service Roofing and Sheet Metal Group, the contractor who conducted cleanup on the roof of R-Tech, to remove the pier.
Tri-State Roofing charged Facilities $18,830 for temporary repairs to the roof, according to an invoice from Tri-State to OU dated Dec. 19. The estimate for the work, dated Nov. 30, says the work was to take place on Dec. 1 and that removing the "base anchor" of the telescope was included.
Once removed, the pier was taken from the university by “dumptruck” to a Waste Management facility in Parkersburg, W.Va., and disposed of.
No one in the department of Physics and Astronomy was asked after the fire whether or not the mounts should be removed, Ingram said, despite a statement in the same email from Kranyik to Shafer on Dec. 7 stating “the contractor also mentioned that he spoke with someone from Facilities and a faculty member from the Physics Department.”
“I apologize for this entire situation,” Kranyik stated in his email correspondence with Shafer.
The exact date of purchase of the telescope is not known, though documents from the Department of Physics and Astronomy show J.W. Fecker, Inc. corresponding with Victor Goedicke, a past OU astronomy professor, about purchasing the telescope for $13,500 in 1948. The telescope OU owns is dated to 1950.
The true value of the telescope and its pier is hard to ascertain, as the university has no record of what its worth is today, Ingram said.
dd195710@ohiou.edu
