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Paige Tooker from the New York Art Foundry. Photo by Georgia Kral
The still-unresolved race between Republican Assemblyman George Amedore and Democrat Cecilia Tkaczyk for the newly created 46th Senate district, will likely determine which party controls the state Senate. But the winner may lack a desk upon arriving in the chamber.
That’s because the Brooklyn-based company hired by the Senate to design and weld the brass fixtures on the new senator’s mahogany desk was inundated by toxic waters from the Gowanus Canal during Superstorm Sandy, filling its warehouse with six feet of water and destroying much of its equipment.
Paige Tooker, owner of the New York Art Foundry, said that without aid from the government, she can’t replace the damaged equipment needed to finish the metal work for the new senator’s desk. And the Senate, she says, has been less than accommodating during this time of stress.
“I’m not able to finish it, and the state Senate is screaming at me,” Ms. Tooker said.
Most of the job has been completed, and Ms. Tooker has been paid in full. But before she and her employees could finish the brass plating that contained the desk’s microphone, Sandy put the Foundry out of commission. Ms. Tooker has predicted that her business may have to shutter if she is unable to receive aid from the federal government.
But despite her problems, the Senate has been growing impatient.
“I said, ‘I really don’t think [the new senator] is going to mind if we don’t finish [the brass plates],’” she said. “And they said, ‘Of course he’s going to mind if he doesn’t have plates over the microphone.’ And I said, ‘Don’t you think he’d understand if a small business that was making those plates was six foot under water and all the equipment’s ruined? And they said, ‘No, he’s not going to care. He’s going to want those plates.’”
A spokesman for the Senate Republicans denied that Ms. Tooker was being treated unfairly.
“Our hearts go out to anyone who was impacted by Hurricane Sandy, and in fact many of our members have been working around the clock to help constituents who were affected,” the spokesman said. “As soon as we became aware that Ms. Tooker was personally affected by this devastating storm, we communicated to her that she will have all the flexibility she needs to complete this project.”
