Su Valley roof still a concern for School Board, borough

October 21, 2005

JOEL DAVIDSON\Frontiersman reporter

MAT-SU - With snowflakes now dusting the top of the Su Valley Jr./Sr. High School, Mat-Su Borough officials worked this week to address the issue of the school's structurally unsound roof.

This fall, architects discovered that the roof could collapse under the weight of 60 pounds per square inch of snow, roughly 18 inches.

The Mat-Su Borough School District is moving ahead with a safety plan to make sure those 18 inches never accumulate on the Talkeetna-area school, where heavy winter snowfall is the norm.

Earlier this month, the district completed a safety plan that calls for snow removal from the roof each time 6 inches of snow accumulates on the roof. It is currently taking bids for a contract.

&#8220We're erring on the side of safety, not on the side of seeing how much snow can pile up there,” Chief School Administrator Bob Doyle told the Mat-Su School Board on Wednesday evening.

Under the school district's plan, Su Valley principal Matt Clark will monitor the roof on a daily basis and call a contractor whenever snow accumulation reaches 6 inches.

&#8220Matt Clark lives next to the school and monitoring of snow can be constant, with an expected response time by the contractor of three hours or less,” Doyle wrote in a report issued to board members. Doyle added that this approach would prevent the need for costly monitoring and possible school make-up days that might result if the school ever had to temporarily shut down.

The long-term plan is to completely replace the flawed roof. On Tuesday, Mat-Su Borough Assembly members authorized the payment of $273,000 to architectural firm Burkhart Croft to develop a new roof design that would replace the current roof. Borough Public Works Director Keith Rountree said the design should be finished by March of 2006.

The price of constructing a new roof is estimated at about $5 million and perhaps much more. On Wednesday, the school board put the roof repair at the top of its capital improvement project list, ahead of the need for three new elementary schools voters recently rejected in two bond proposals this month.

Doyle told the board members they could include the roof project in future bond proposals either this coming spring or next fall.

The board also discussed the possibility of putting together an emergency funding request to the Alaska State Legislature for direct capital improvement funds to complete the repairs.

In addition to the considerable roof problem, the 30-year-old school may contain mold, which could cause student health complications.

Earlier this year, Talkeetna community members expressed concern to the borough that mold may exist within the school. If located within the school's walls, the mold could prove costly to eradicate.

Airborne sampling, visual observations, swab tests and surface samples will all be used to determine if a problem exists. On Tuesday, the borough assembly authorized $12,000 to proceed with the mold study. Final results are expected to be in by the new year.

Contact Joel Davidson at

352-2266, or joel.davidson@ frontiersman.com.