Cortland Elementary School is in need of a new roof, and the project will happen sooner rather than later.
On April 8, a storm with high winds caused significant damage to the school’s gym roof, delaminating the majority of its membrane and causing water to run behind the gutter, said Dave Stark, director of facilities and grounds for Seymour Community School Corp.
“I noticed that the gym roof was flapping up and down,” Stark said.
Southern Roofing of Columbus placed batons April 13 as an emergency fix to help secure the roof, which is 26 years old, temporarily so it wasn’t at risk of coming off in another storm. That work cost the corporation around $14,000, Stark said.
During a meeting Tuesday night, the school board gave the go-ahead to have the old roof removed and a new one installed on the 16,000-square-foot gymnasium.
Trustees also decided they wanted to go ahead and replace the rest of the 17,562-square-foot roof over the classrooms, kitchen, cafeteria and old office area at the same time. That portion of the roof also was installed in 1994.
“If we don’t catch it now, we’re going to have to do it within the next two years,” Stark said of that part of the roof. “We’ve already had some leak issues and done some repairs on it.”
Three companies submitted bids for the work: Southern Roofing, HRC Roofing of Columbus and Royalty Roofing of Seymour. Royalty had the lowest bid for the gym roof at $72,070, while Southern Roofing had the lowest bid to do both projects together at $139,500.
“I think we’ll save money if we do both at the same time,” Trustee Max Klosterman said.
He and fellow trustees John Kelley, Ken Browning and Joe Tormoehlen worked with Stark to develop project specifications.
Klosterman made a motion to do both projects together and to award the bid to Royalty Roofing at $144,443 because Southern Roofing did not choose one of the four roofing manufacturers listed in the specifications.
Work will begin in about two weeks and should take seven to 10 days to complete, Stark said.
Kelley and Trustee Jeff Joray both abstained from voting on the matter because of conflicts of interest with Royalty Roofing. Joray’s son works for Royalty, and Kelley also works for the company.