South Putnam moves ahead with roof repairs

The South Putnam School Board approved a bid from Nu Tech Roofing Contractors, Indianapolis, to repair sections of the Fillmore Elementary School, Central Elementary School and South Putnam Jr./Sr. High School roofs for $194,700 in a recent special meeting.

The bid came under the budgeted amount of $233,433. The original cost estimate, made in July, had been $223,500.

The roof will use EDPM material, which is black for absorbing heat in the winter. The old rock and rubber ballast currently on those sections will be recycled by the school.

The work will come with a 20-year warranty and is expected to be complete by the end of the year.

The roof repairs are a subproject of a corporation-wide improvement project, which included high bay cleaning in the Central Elementary cafeteria and the high school gym, roof drain repairs on the high school roof and installing a direct digital control (DDC) system.

Since the school board approved the subprojects in July, the high bay cleaning and roof drain repairs have been completed.

However, Kramer Companies, the company responsible for overseeing these projects, was not entirely satisfied with the work done in the gym. Hughes Environmental, the company that performed the cleaning, had been concerned about destroying the gym floor and so had not used its usual equipment.

The roof work will be funded by the rainy day fund. In June, the school board approved a resolution that will allow the corporation to reimburse that fund with proceeds from bond sales, not to exceed $2 million.

At that time, Superintendent Bruce Bernhardt said the project would not increase taxes “because we have some bonds that we’ve been paying on that are going to be coming off in 2018 ... We expect that tax rates will be level or even drop some when we take on this project. The intent is absolutely not to raise taxes by selling bonds in the future.”

Vice President Angie Nichols was absent.

The South Putnam School Board’s next regular meeting will be Sept. 18 at 7 p.m. in the Central Elementary music room.