NEW MILFORD — Roof work at the high school is 70 percent complete just five months after a fire broke out on the roof.
“The contractor has been aggressively moving forward as the weather permits on completing the project,” Mayor Pete Bass said.
The project to repair the 50-year-old roof started prior to two fires at the building over the past year. In addition to causing damages to the classrooms, the worst of the fires was on July 5 and left several inches of water inside the building and caused six firefighters to suffer from smoke inhalation.
The town previously hired the company United Roofing & Sheet Metal, Inc., in Brookfield to perform the work, but the company was fired following the blaze. The fire marshal has said last December’s fire originated due to the roof work, while the company was also blamed for a pipe falling and a ladder hitting a town truck.
Bass said the town is now working with Greenwood General Contracting in West Hempstead, N.Y., as the contractor for the project.
“It’s progressing along,” Public Works Director Jack Healy said.
Bass said Greenwood has been mainly working in the courtyard area of the roof and working to install standing seam panels on the dormer. If the weather permits, he said the contractor plans to have the elevated roofs completed by the end of January.
Healy said they’re continuing to work on the metal, pitched parts of the roof and will work on the flat portions of the roof in the spring when the whether warms up.
“That’s all in working with the school, making sure the kids and administration are all aware as we move those things around, especially in the spring when the kids are back in school,” Bass said.
Bass added the contractor is looking to complete the flat portions of the roof either during spring break or later in the season, depending on what’s going on at the school at the time.