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Town Looks Forward to New Roof at Former Hays School

The groups and organizations that use the former Hays School on Maple Street certainly appreciate the town providing a home base for their services, even if they’re less enthusiastic about the old school’s roof leaking tar into their rooms. Things should be looking up, however, following Town Council action earlier this month.

At the June 6 Town Council meeting, the council voted to waive competitive bidding requirements for the repair and replacement of the roof. Finance Director Frank Rizza told the Courier that the town chose to forgo a bid due to the timeliness of needed repairs.

Town Council member Robert Parente, who also works for Public Services, said there have been so many patch jobs on the roof over the years that there are now “gallons of tar” on the roof that have begun to seep down.

Although the town owns the building, Mayor Joseph Maturo, Jr., said that the town put the Foxon Recreation League, one of the current tenants, in charge of it. The old school also houses the East Haven Historical Society, an aerobics group, the teen center, and boy and girl scout troops.

Town Director of Economic Development Sal Brancati said that a bathroom in a classroom had to be closed off because of the amount of tar that had seeped in, and Joan Adamczyk of the Foxon Recreation League said that tar is coming down into the equipment room the group uses.

Brancati said that Parente and Public Services have cleaned the damage several times, and plastics have been put on materials in the Historical Society room so nothing gets wet.

The roof replacement will include the any part of the decking that needs to be replaced according to Brancati, and Parente said it will be “completely refurbished and brand new.”

Brancati said at the June 6 meeting that the town had not put out a formal bidding process, but had instead asked roofing contractors and engineering firms to evaluate the roof and propose the materials and costs to prepare.

The town chose Quality Roofing to work on the roof, as it came in with the lowest of three cost estimates. Brancati said the company also tested for asbestos, and indicated in its quote that there was no asbestos in the roof or flashing.

Maturo said that the roof is not being worked on yet (as of press time), but he expects the roof work to be finished in about two weeks, and that the material is being delivered to the site. Maturo said the town had bonded $147,000 to have a new roof put on.

“We’re excited about that because it is a great building, it’s in a great location, and we have a lot of our citizens using that building,” said Maturo, “We’re happy to get it done.”

After the roof is complete, Maturo said the town will go into the building to do any interior repairs and cleaning that need to be done.

“It’ll be in A-1 shape for the rest of the tenants to use that to their best ability,” Maturo said.

Maturo acknowledged that some repairs would be required to repair vandalism, such as broken window glass. He said cameras were put up at the building, so if any further damage is done the town can catch whoever is doing it on camera.

The same was done at the old high school building on Tyler Street.

“Until the time it’s actually sold, we want to make sure that the building stays safe,” Maturo said.

The Foxon Recreation League previously used was the old Foxon School in between Route 100 and Route 80. Maturo said the town plans to sell that building.

“That’s more in a commercial area, so it’s easier to sell that building,” he said.

Maturo said that if the town sold the Hays building, whoever the town sold it to would probably tear down the building and put up more houses.

“I really didn’t want to see any more housing in that area, so this suits it pretty good for now,” Maturo said.