New roof slated for Maple Hill School

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The Board of Mayor and Burgesses approved a $974,000 bid from Silktown Roofing of Manchester Tuesday night to replace the roof at Maple Hill Elementary School. –RA ARCHIVE
The Board of Mayor and Burgesses approved a $974,000 bid from Silktown Roofing of Manchester Tuesday night to replace the roof at Maple Hill Elementary School. –RA ARCHIVE

NAUGATUCK — After years of concern over leaks, the Board of Mayor and Burgesses approved Tuesday a $974,000 replacement for the roof of Maple Hill Elementary School.

Workers have been fixing leaks for at least the past seven years, said Michael Lynch, facilities engineer. In the past two years, leaks have increased in the area of the main office and front skylight, Lynch said.

“We’ve spent thousands patching it over the last two years, and there’s no doubt you need a new one,” Lynch said.

The work will be completed by Silktown Roofing of Manchester, which submitted the lowest bid, Lynch said. The other two companies bid $1.1 million and $1.2 million, Lynch said.

The board also authorized Superintendent of Schools John Tindall-Gibson to apply for reimbursement from the state for the project. The state’s reimbursement rate is somewhere around 70 percent of the cost, Lynch said.

Controller Wayne McAllister, who is also the school system’s business manager, said the borough will only have to pay about $219,000 after state reimbursement, and the money will come from surplus funds from previous capital projects that had been approved at referendum years ago.

The 53,000-square-foot roof was built along with the school 24 years ago, Lynch said. Most roofs need replacement within 20 to 30 years.

The school’s current roof is made of rubber with rocks for ballast and has a quarter-inch slope, Lynch said. It will be replaced with a ply modified bitumen roofing system, which is rubber without the rocks for easier maintenance, Lynch said. The slope will increase to half an inch, he said.

The project also includes repairs to small cracks in the caulking and expansion joints in the school’s facade and replacement of all existing skylights, Lynch said.

The work will begin this summer and is expected to take 70 days, Lynch said. The majority will be finished before next school year starts, but a couple of workers will still be on hand to finish small-scale trim work after students come back, Lynch said.