Freeport Area approves $13K to replace roof of salt storage shed that dates to 1960s

For a small school district with limited finances, stretching a dollar is a year-round school board proposition.

Residents attending Freeport Area School District’s board meeting were reminded of that last week.

This time it wasn’t computers, textbooks or teaching positions hovering over the chopping block but protection for the district’s road salt supply.

The board debated approving a new roof for its road salt storage shed at the rear of the high school campus for just under $13,000.

But some board members favored patching the current roof with the same corrugated fiberglass or plastic panels it is made of and making do with it for a while longer.

That debate dominated a large portion of the board meeting.

In the end, the board approved the new roof in a 6-3 vote with Frank Prazenica, Gary Risch and Christine Davies opposing it.

John Haven, the board’s buildings and grounds chairman, said he examined the storage shed and the new metal roof — bid by GreenCore LLC at a cost of $12,892 — was badly needed.

Prazenica moved to table a vote on the expenditure to give the board more time to investigate it. That motion failed .

“Why do we have to have a metal roof?” Prazenica asked.

He said places with large stores of road salt such as Freeport Terminals do not have them under a metal roof and some places use large tarps to protect them.

“I think the metal roof is a luxury, and I don’t think we are a district that can afford luxuries,” Prazenica said. “It doesn’t take much to fix that roof.”

He said all the district has to do is patch some of the holes.

Risch agreed with Prazenica’s assessment.

Risch said the roof is the kind of expense the board needs to look at cutting so the administration doesn’t have to cut education-related items.

However, Haven said the salt shed is in bad condition.

He displayed photos of the shed, a mostly open-air structure of a patchwork roof held up with poles anchored in concrete blocks. It shelters the salt supply used to keep roads at all four district schools clear of ice and snow.

“This is from the ’60s,” Haven said.

The new roof will do a better job of protecting the salt supply, Haven said, because it will cover 30% to 50% more area under a roof that will be 5 feet higher.

He said Eric Mailki, the district’s buildings and grounds superintendent, had asked about replacing the roof.

“It’s not that he wants it,” Haven said. “We need it.”