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New Kremmling school to get new roof

KATIE LOOBY
SKY-HI DAILY NEWS

Jeff Perry says workers will have the West Grand PK-8 School in tiptop shape before school begins.

Work began Monday after weeks of planning, says the West Grand School District superintendent. “It’s a short time period, and as long as they don’t run into bad weather, they’ll be done.”

In February, high winds caused part of the new school’s roof to lift, but “it never blew off,” Perry said.



“We took necessary steps to ensure safety as always,” Perry added. “Police and other agencies came out to help us, in case the roof were to actually separate from the building. Safety was always a primary concern.”

While there were no leaks in the gymnasium, there were a few in the library and other places.



The Neenan Company, the district’s general contractor, sent engineers and inspectors to examine the roof. They discovered that the metal clips used to attach the metal roof to the metal building frame had failed.

“They had not put enough screws in the clips to hold that down,” Perry added. “The engineering plan on the old roof was good.”

He said the district worried insurance might not pay for it. “We will deal with the insurance later, but we’ve got to get you guys a new roof,” is what Neenan told the district, Perry said.

Neenan will replace all sections of the roof that have engineering or application problems, he said.

“They’re going to do a system called an overlay,” he said. “It puts a whole new roof on top of the existing roof that we have. We actually will have two roofs over the school when it’s all said and done, and all of this is no expense to us.”

In addition, the district will end up with a heavier gauge roof than it originally budgeted for, and a heavier clip system.

“As they engineered this, (Neenan) actually gave us money to purchase an independent engineer, so we could make sure that what they were doing actually met our needs,” he said.

He hopes the roof over the gymnasium will be done by the start of school, Aug. 18. It should last for 40 years. However, other portions of the roof may have to wait, including the portion above the library.

“We have got to make a decision if the inconvenience, and noise level and some of the potential safety issues are greater than potential leaks; or should we just wait until the summer,” Perry said. “So right now, we’ll probably just wait for the summer.”


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