Two roofs on city buildings were damaged during a recent storm and are in need of close to $160,000 for repairs or replacement, according to Searcy officials.

By Greg Geary

Code Enforcement Director Jeff Webb spoke to the Searcy City Council on Thursday night about the roof on the city’s community service building on Market Avenue, saying “that building was built in 1975, from everything I can find.”

“That roof needs to be replaced,” Webb said. “We got a price here of $114,000 and that’s taking it down to a metal roof, sheet metal and replacing all the insulation and putting a new roof on it.

“It’s had some damage to it. It’s had some water damage in a couple of different areas over the years.”

Mayor Mat Faulkner added that the storm pulled up the roof and ripped part of it.

“It has a big rip in it,” Webb said. He said it was “temporarily fixed just to keep it from leaking right now. Really the whole roof needs to come off.”

Councilman David Morris said, “You’ve got to have a roof, move it forward” to the Tuesday night regular meeting, which is at 5 p.m. at City Hall.

Faulkner verified with Webb that the new roof has a 25-year warranty.

Concerning the other roof that was “damaged on the evening of Aug. 25th … when a storm blew through town,” City Engineer Mark Lane said the roof that was damaged was on former Bowerman Trucking Co. property on 1615 Eastline Road that the council agreed to purchase last year for $825,000 to relocate the street and sanitation departments.

“The Street Department actually had two buildings, the original [on Beebe-Capps Expressway] and the addition,” Lane said. “It [the storm] took the northern half of that addition with the Street Department off, and a good portion of the other side. When it did that, it also picked the other side of the roof up a little bit and set it back down where the nails that were holding it down were up half an inch in many places and it leaks.”

He said the city’s insurance company “allowed us $22,000 total on that damage” while the company “that does most of the city’s roofing” said it would cost $69,626 for a total replacement or $59,000 for a partial.

“We’re asking you tonight to give us the difference in what the insurance and our roofing contractor,” Lane said.

Councilman Dale Brewer asked Lane why the insurance company did not pay more. “I argued with them about that,” Lane said. “They sent their adjustor. Of course it includes a $10,000 deduction, deductible. They were firm in their number. The contractor was willing to speak to him about it. He couldn’t get anywhere with him.”

Morris asked if the age of the roof had anything to do with it. Lane said the insurance company “depreciated the value due to the age of the roof and the difference was $40-some-odd-thousand-dollars.”

Faulkner asked Lane if there was a warranty on the new roof. Lane said there is typically a standard warranty on this type of roof and a label warrant on it of two years.

“I would not recommend doing a partial, especially with the lifting of the rest of that roof,” Faulkner said.

Lane added, “I believe if we get a snow on it and it freezes and we need it to thaw, it will definitely leak.”

Lane said the insurance company was only allowing the partial replacement of the roof. “They said they would give us a little bit for putting new nails in the part that is still there. I couldn’t get them to budge off that.”

Raney said, “We just need to do a whole new roof.” Morris added that it would just be a matter of time before the entire roof would have to be replaced.

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