After some discussion, Town of Castor council has decided to move forward with repairs on the Castor Municipal Library building roof. The decision was made during the Aug. 22 council meeting.
The flat-roof structure, according to chief administrative officer Christopher Robblee, is no longer sloped properly and as a result water is sitting on the roof of the building.
Being unable to source a local contractor to do the job, Robblee ultimately had to source a company from Red Deer to get a quote.
The business, Goodmen Roofing, provided the town with two quotes: one to repair the roof at a cost of around $35,000, and one to completely replace it at a cost of just under $100,000.
“According to them, it needs to be replaced,” said Robblee.
“The replacement is what they recommend.”
Robblee said that the repair option will likely stop the immediate leak, but it would only be a matter of time before it started leaking again.
Another consideration before council regarding the roof was while the repair carried no warranty what so ever, the full replacement of the roof would come with a 15-year manufacturer’s and material warranty.
Robblee did caution council however; he informed the councillors that based on discussions with the company, and previous personal experience, that there is no knowing what would be found once the roof is torn into and the $100,000 estimate is likely significantly low.
According to Robblee, cost escalations up to $150,000 for the full replacement wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility.
Coun. Trudy Kilner, feeling that $150,000 is too much to spend on one item of infrastructure at this time, motioned to just repair the roof and not do a full replacement.
“I feel like $150,000 is not right for our little town for a roof right now,” said Kilner, noting that water and sewer pumps are wearing out and need to be replaced.
Kilner’s motion was carried, in a split vote. Coun. Shawn Peach and Coun. Brenda Wismer voted against the motion.
Library bathroom
Keeping with the library, the next item on the agenda had to do with renovations on the library’s bathroom.
The current bathroom in the facility is too small to meet the needs of disabled clients, and discussions have been in the works for the last couple of years to increase the size of it.
Several options have been looked at over the last couple of years, but according to Robblee, the simplest, and the one for which the quote was attached, was moving one of the walls in the existing bathroom, moving it around two-feet into the Paintearth Adult Learning side of the building.
“It (will be) big enough to be handicapped,” said Robblee.
“It won’t be standard. In order to do that, I’d have to move concrete walls.”
The quote provided with agenda package was just under $4,500 by Castor-based CRS Construction.
“I think this is the only option,” said Coun. Peach, voting in favour of a motion put forward by Coun. Kevin McDougall allowing the library to proceed with the proposed renovation.