Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 18, 1995 TAG: 9511200014
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
One or two of the large, white pails sit in the middle of a hallway at Prices Fork Elementary, ready to catch the drops that seep through the roof.
The water falls to the stained carpet a few days after it rains, she said, when the roof can no longer hold the excess water.
"So, we call in a work order and maintenance comes over, they put another layer of [material] down," Cottrill said. "That works until the next rain."
Prices Fork, Blacksburg Middle School and Shawsville and Auburn high schools desperately need complete roof replacements. Larry Schoff, maintenance and transportation director for Montgomery County Schools, rated the four leaky roofs as emergency situations, where materials have deteriorated past the point of repair.
Thursday night, after a public budget hearing at Auburn Middle and High School, the School Board voted unanimously to request that the Board of Supervisors fund the emergency renovations at a cost of $291,000.
Whether the board will pay for it remains to be seen. Meanwhile, other roofs are on the verge of dripping Mother Nature's fury into school classrooms.
In August, the Board of Supervisors approved a request for $49,000 to repair a leaking roof at Gilbert Linkous Elementary school.
Waiting to fix a roof until it reaches emergency conditions doesn't appeal to Schoff. Maintaining the materials on a yearly basis can stretch the life of a roof and prevent these kinds of urgent situations, he said.
About half of the schools' 1 million square feet of roofing has been fully replaced in the past 10 years, and the school system has these roofs inspected and maintained annually. Schoff worries about the other half.
Some of the roofs were built in the 1930s through 50s when roofers used several layers of material for an almost impenetrable seal. Still, those are starting to show signs of age.
Schools built in the 1960s and '70s were constructed with fewer layers of protection. Now, those roofs are beginning to fail as well.
Within the next 15 years, Schoff hopes to replace the roofing that has not yet been renovated.
The proposed 1996-97 capital improvement budget includes 34 projects at $1.79 million, Schoff said. That includes six roofing replacements.
Ideally, Schoff would like to have all the roofs on a cycle to be replaced every 20 years. At a current cost of $7 per square foot, that plan would require $350,000 annually from the schools' capitol improvement project budget.
School Board Chairman Roy Vickers said he plans to personally address the Board of Supervisors to request the four school emergency funding.
"I expect they'll address it as soon as they can," he said Thursday . "I plan to be there to help speed up the process."
by CNB