The Seymour Parks and Recreation Department board recently OK’d quotes on a pair of projects.

First, the maintenance building at Gaiser Park will receive a new roof, gables and gutters. Amish Roofers of Bartlettsville was awarded the project with its bid of $24,708.

Second, the splash pad restroom building at Westside Park will have electrical work performed by the same company installed the plumbing, Craig’s Heating Air Electric Plumbing Inc. of Seymour. That firm’s bid was $11,200.

Both passed on a unanimous 5-0 vote.

At one point, department officials considered tearing down the maintenance building. Plans, however, changed after receiving a quote of $43,000 to knock it down.

Program Director Chad Keithley said someone checked out the foundation of the building and said it was structurally sound, and if repairs were made to the roof and gables and gutters were added, it would be like a brand-new building.

Parks Director Stacy Findley said the building and its garage doors will be painted until funding is available to replace the garage doors, which is estimated to cost around $80,000. The painting along with tearing down existing block walls inside the shop will be done in-house to save money.

“It looks rough right now, but I think it just needs some love,” she said of the building. “I think if we give it a facelift and especially gutters, it doesn’t have gutters right now, also doing gables on it, (that will make it look better).”

Findley said the roof will be metal to match the nearby shelter house.

“That’s what we’re moving toward in all of our parks if possible,” she said.

The Amish Roofers’ quote includes a 40-year paint warranty on the roof and a standard 10-year workmanship warranty.

Board President Monica Riley said since the department inherited the old fire station building on West Fifth Street, she wondered if the maintenance building at Gaiser Park was still needed because that requires more upkeep.

“We still don’t have enough room, to be honest with you,” Keithley said. “Kerry (Bevers) is moving stuff in and out daily, especially if we get shipments in. We’ve been having dry storage for shipments come in for ball tournaments. Thirty-two skids of product, where do you put it? … I think Gaiser is going to be a great centralized location for Freeman, Gaiser, Shields, Kessler and Kasting (parks) to store that material in order to make the transition going into the season.”

Findley said keeping the building at Gaiser Park will allow more equipment that has had to remain outside in the elements to be put inside. The old fire station building has helped with that, too.

When the new building is finished at Westside Park, Bevers said up to three mowers could fit in the storage part, and Findley said those could remain there for the parks crew to use. The same goes for Gaiser Park.

“We have mowers on trailers. There are times whenever we have guys waiting to mow certain parks for trailers with mowers to get there,” Findley said. “If they are at the park, it’s more convenient. We have more use of their time versus the travel time to get from park to park.”

For the Westside Park electrical project, Findley recommended going with Craig’s since it did the plumbing work.

“With the splash pad going there, the electrical and plumbing need to go hand in hand,” she said.

The quote includes all wiring to devices, lights, switches, covers, outlets, ceiling fans, labor and materials. This does not include electrical to the splash pad, but a 200 amp panel for the splash pad will be provided.