Roof Construction Should Be Finished Before Students Return

The work to put a new roof on Blissfield High School is on track for completion before the school year starts.

"We’re on schedule, weather permitting of course,” said Blissfield Community Schools facilities manager Tom Kasefang, noting Monday that there was rain in the forecast for much of the week. “It’s a bit of a tricky project and they have to be careful not to take too much of the roof off at once because of the asbestos. If rain gets in there and the asbestos gets wet and falls, it would be a big mess. So they have to be very conservative.”

The work is being done by Toledo-based Overhead Roofing and Sheet Metal.

“They do good work. They did our elementary school roof a couple years ago,” Kasefang said.

The cost of the roof is expected to come in at somewhere between $700,000 and $900,000. It is one of several projects which will be funded by a $5 million bond that school officials believe will come in at zero, or close-to-zero-interest. The district will pay off the bond using the 10-year sinking fund millage, approved by voters a year ago.

The school district also hopes to use the money to install a new boiler and pipes at the high school. District Chief Financial Officer Dan Garno said that depending on the cost of the boiler system, the district could also have money to install energy efficient windows.

Kasefang said the district’s facilities committee met last week and decided to move forward with designing and engineering of the boiler system. He said the project could go out to bid by January and work could begin in the spring.

“I think we can get through one more year with the existing boiler. I just hope there aren’t any expensive repairs. That’s always the concern,” he said.

Garno said there wasn’t enough money to build the geo-thermal heating and cooling system that the district sought in two bond proposals. Instead, the district will install a traditional boiler system.

“Even though a geo-thermal system essentially pays for itself over the years, there just isn’t enough money in the account,” Garno said.

Will using future sinking fund money to make these improvements impair the district’s ability to react to facilities problems five or six years from now? Garno said he believes the district should be covered.

“We’re starting with $572,000 in the bank sitting there. Plus we will have whatever is left from the bond. And we should have some of the collected sinking fund money left over every year after putting aside the money to pay back the bond,” Garno said.

The zero, or close-to-zero-interest bond through a program underwritten by the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. As part of the program, the district will not be required to begin repaying the bond for 10 years.