Board OKs new roof for Louise gym, band hall
"I called him and we can keep the price." - Andy Peters, LISD superintendent
By BRENDA SOMMER bsommer@leader-news.com

Louise ISD will pull money from its fund balance and maintenance budget to put a new, $46,000 roof on its gym, band hall and fitness center.

The board last month held off revising the roofing contract for its new fitness center, a project already approved with Jaco Construction, because trustees decided they'd rather re-roof the entire gym and band hall complex.

Jaco was the winning bidder to install Duralast roofing for just the gym roof over the fitness center, the whole gym, or the gym and band hall. The board wanted to make sure the bids, submitted in February 2007, were still valid.

"I called him up and we can keep the price," Superintendent Andy Peters said Monday. "We can do all three buildings for $46,000, which is a really, really good price."

The roofing will come with a 20-year warranty, and trustee Tim Benich said the project is "a good investment that will keep those buildings viable for many more years."

Trustee Mark Wendel noted the band hall and gym are "the only buildings we haven't done a lot of maintenance on in the 10 years I've been on the board."

And board member David Menefee said if the board only roofed the new fitness center, and decided to re-roof the band hall and rest of the gym at a later date, the cost would be "considerably more."

Trustees agreed unanimously, with board President Zack Williamson absent, to pull $20,000 from the fund balance and $26,000 from a budget item used for maintenance and summer projects to cover the cost of the roofing.

In the district's old elementary gymnasium, trustees are creating a major fitness center in unused space at a cost of about $57,000, to accommodate fitness gear it will buy with a $200,000, multi-year federal grant for physical education equipment and teacher training.

At last month's board meeting, trustees unanimously approved a purchase of $110,854 in fitness gear, all paid for out of the federal grant.