Patriot Bremerton
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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2014 | Vol. 17, No. 3 WWW.BREMERTONPATRIOT.COM | 50¢
Leaky roof at BHS set to be replaced in 2015 BY KEVAN MOORE KMOORE@SOUNDPUBLISHING.COM
Back in 2012, the biggest Bremerton School District priority was replacing the roof at the high school. When election results for a $7.6 million capital levy showed a near 60-percent approval rate in August 2012, Bremerton School District Finance Director Wayne Lindberg talked about expanding the STEM Academy at West Hills and replacing the roof at the high school. Those two projects were the main selling points of the capital levy. “We will probably have the high school roof repaired next summer and we will continue with the design of the STEM project,” Lindberg told the Patriot while election returns were still pouring in back in 2012. The roof replacement, though, never occurred and is now slated for the summer of 2015. Lindberg says that’s because the school board and former superintendent Flip Herndon decided to prioritize the STEM academy expansion ahead of the roof work. Construction of the STEM expansion is set to start next month to the tune of $2.5 million. The roof
repairs will cost about $1.9 million. “Our plan is to complete the STEM addition by Christmas and then, in 2015, we’ll be concentrating on the high school roof,” Lindberg said. “We may be replacing the Crown Hill Elementary roof this summer. We’re getting those bids right now.” Since the levy’s passage, the school district has spent about $12,000 to do patch work on the roof to address leaks, Lindberg said. That capital levy money is allowed to be used for repairs rather than replacement, Lindberg said, because it’s part of the overall project to replace the roof. He said $59,368 of capital levy money has also already been spent to replace the elevator at the high school, something that wasn’t anticipated or on the project list prior to the levy’s passage. When the high school was built in the late ‘80s, the tile roof was expected to last 50 years. That expectation was shattered when freezing temperatures and wet weather led to cracking tiles. That cracking, it turns out, wasn’t easily addressed or covered by warranty. The 2012 capital levy was promoted
Kevan Moore/Staff photo
When Bremerton School District voters approved a $7.6 million capital levy in 2012, the expectation was that Bremerton High School’s defective roof structure would be replaced right away. That won’t happen until 2015. as a way of fixing the high school roof, and others in the district, along with the West Hills STEM expansion and the creation of a central kitchen. The central kitchen, like the roof replacement at BHS, has still not occurred.
Bremerton School District Facilities Director Ron Carpenter said that contractors have been called out about four or five times this year to address leaks at the high school. “It’s a problem,” Carpenter
said. “Right now it’s controllable, but you gotta keep on it. Roofs are a big priority in the district right now. The high school roof has problems, but there are also major costs associated with it because of what you have to do.”
Pacific Avenue’s ‘punch list’ is getting longer BY KEVAN MOORE KMOORE@SOUNDPUBLISHING.COM
Kevan Moore/staff photo
Brand new bollards installed on Pacific Avenue are chipped and rusting.
The Pacific Avenue Project “punch list,” a sort of to-do list before contractors can walk away from a job, is growing. Parking signs installed in planter beds are wobbly and don’t meet state or city standards; there are cracked concrete sidewalks, stamped concrete intersection crosswalks made to resemble brick work along the length of Pacific is already fading and new bollards, bright blue powder coated posts, installed in front of the planetarium are
chipped and rusting. The defective brickstamped concrete issue, most visible at the intersection of 11th and Pacific, resembles the intersection of Fourth and Pacific where ornamental salmon were stamped into the intersection during the original phase of corridor improvements but have already worn away and are no longer visible. Those powder coated bollards installed in front of the Pacific Planetarium are mere inches from a freshly poured concrete slab with a huge crack. And many of the signs along the corridor, lacking
any concrete foundation, seem like they could topple in a light breeze. Those defects are the latest in a long list of shortcomings that include spalling concrete, sidewalks that don’t meet city specifications for depth and foundation, Americans with Disabilities Act concerns in front of homes and a business, misplaced drainage collection points and shoddy concrete separation joints. In addition, at least one business owner along the construction corridor alleges that contracSEE PACIFIC AVENUE, A9