Snow, ice damage lead to major roof fix at BTMS BY DANIELLE MEDINA Correspondent BRICK TOWNSHIP - More than 11,000 square feet of Brick Township Memorial High School's roof was replaced over the weekend, after major flooding caused the evacuation of the school last week. Board of Education members unanimously passed a resolution at the Feb. 15 board meeting that awarded a $176,900 contract to JDS Industrial Roofing Contractors, Ocean, to rip off and replace a section of the school's roof. "This section of the roof had problems last year and it was patched with the intention that it was going to be repaired and replaced last summer," interim Business Administrator Melindo A. Persi told the board. "But the funds that had been planned for that were eliminated from the budget." Those funds evaporated after Brick's voters rejected the district's $84 million tax levy last April. The repairs were shelved after budget cuts were made. But that all changed last Wednesday, when snow and rain cascaded into sections of the school. There was "a waterfall" in a number of areas, including four stairwells and eleven classrooms, which was the result of roof flashing pulling away from the parapet walls around the edges of the building, Persi said. The flashing is supposed to deflect water away from the walls. Instead, the water flowed directly into the building. A slushy mix of snow and ice also caused some drains to clog, which also allowed the water to build up on the top of the roof. Although students were evacuated from the room and the stairwells were closed off, the problem could not be contained. That forced the school to close at 1 p.m. last Wednesday and remain closed the following day. School maintenance workers replaced the ceiling tiles and cleaned the classrooms last Thursday. Fire officials cleared the school to reopen on Feb. 16, school officials said. "I went to see the damaged areas and I can't say enough about the custodians and maintenance people who did a great job in getting everything under control and cleaning up a big mess," board member Frank Pannucci said. Although the roof replacement was expected to be completed over the weekend, another section of the school's roof will have to be replaced over the summer, Persi said. He said that the cost to replace that section of the roof will cost more than the current $176,900 project. Natick Trail resident Art Griggs questioned the board's decision to replace the school's flat roof with another one, instead of a pitched roof. "Flat roofs like this are a horrendous nightmare," Griggs said. "Drains do clog eventually. The roofs do leak. The flashing does come off. You're going to be patching this forever."