Maple Hill Roof Repair Put Off Until 2012

A recently approved plan to replace the leaky roof of Maple Hill School has been postponed until the summer of 2012, borough officials said Thursday.

In June, to spend $899,000 toward fixing the K-5 school’s problematic roof, which is said to cause leaking problems in the school. Of that total cost, the state would reimburse Naugatuck $617,000 because the fix is a school-related capital project.

But during the board meeting Thursday, board member James Scully said the roof repair was postponed because it turned out to be too late in the season to start the project. Scully said the plan originally was to begin work on the 26-year-old roof in August and work until the early weeks of the school year.

According to Controller Wayne McAllister, it would have taken two months to finish the job. McAllister said the borough felt it best to delay the project until next summer so it wouldn’t interfere with school.

“It took a whole summer — two months — for us to do the renovation on Andrew Avenue School,” he said.

In the meantime, Scully said the district will pay for some roof patching jobs throughout the wintertime.

During a meeting in June, Kaestle Boos Engineeer Richard Kirby said the roof had a number of “potential areas where water can come in.”

“Additional problems would be catastrophic,” Kirby was quoted as saying at the time.