Arlington Hts. school roof repairs to cost $700,000
For years Thomas Middle School has been unable to handle the amount of rain that falls on its roof.
The building, which dates back to 1963, has drains that are too small and are attached to the sanitary sewer lines. As a result water backs up in some drinking fountains, sinks, toilets and floor drains. Recently a sink overflowed into some classrooms damaging tile.
The fix will be expensive, the Arlington Heights Elementary District 25 school board heard on Thursday. The board didn't officially vote on the project at the board meeting, but probably will in the next month or so.
It will cost more than $700,000 to fix the building's roof drains, said Ken Roiland, District 25's director of facilities management. Much of the cost is due to Thomas' placement. The school sits lower than Arlington Heights, Thomas, and Belmont roads, which all surround the school.
The work will include enlarging the drain pipes and separating the sanitary sewer lines from the drain pipes and rerouting the drain pipes so the water is dumped directly outside. If approved, the project will start this summer.
In total, about $2.5 million worth of projects are scheduled to take place this summer.
Other projects include Westgate Elementary school, where a boiler room will be converted into a classroom and three storage spaces will be converted into three classrooms, at a cost of about $680,000. It will also cost about $400,000 to fix a portion of Miner School's roof, Roiland said.
Most of the money for the summer projects will come from the district's general fund, although a good chunk of leftover air-conditioning money also will be used, Roiland said.
"The air-conditioning project came in $1 million under budget," he said. "We budgeted $12.6 million and the entire project ended up costing about $11.6 million."
The plan air-conditioned South, Thomas, Greenbrier and Olive-Mary Stitt in the summer of 2008. Work on Dryden, Ivy Hill, Patton, Westgate and Windsor will take place this summer.