Flooding Flaws Fixed at Elementary School

 — by Margie Doyle —

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While the star of the School District show at this Saturday’s event may be the completion of the $11.9M Bond project, there’s a pretty impressive sideshow taking place at the north addition to the Nellie Milton (brick) elementary building.

The 10,000 gallons’ flood destroyed floors, ceilings and walls.

Catastrophic flooding over a period of days last May necessitated emergency remediation and repairs. The flooding was caused by “a water leak that released approximately 10,000 gallons of water into the school building. The water spread across several rooms on the second floor, leaked through the floor and the ceiling below, ran down the stairs and down an adjacent elevator shaft, flooding several more rooms on the first floor.

“By the time the leak was discovered, the water had penetrated the floor surface, seeped between the underlayment layers of the floor, underneath and behind the cabinetry, soaked the ceiling tiles, carpets, and wallboard, and damaged or destroyed other fixtures and instructional supplies and materials.”  ( from https://theorcasonian.com/address-school-flood )

School Superintendent Eric Webb reported to the School District Board on Thursday, August 27, “The Milton repairs have continued to progress over the last month. The main focus at this point in the project is floor covering and moving the classroom items and furniture back into the rooms.”

Clean new walls and floors will greet elementary students next week

“We had a little stress when the carpet didn’t come in on Monday as scheduled; when it showed up at noon on Tuesday, it was just one little bitty box. And the carpet layers had been here since 7 a.m. But we got that straightened out and now they’re installing carpet and baseboard in [the elementary school.

“It will be last minute; it will be stressful on teachers. But we’re going to do what we can and we’ll make it work. When all’s said and done, teachers will have almost a brand new room.”

The repair work is contracted to Tiger Construction of Blaine, which also completed the three phases of the 2012 School Bond construction project. Tiger has subcontracted to local and off-island construction firms, including Terra Firma of Orcas Island, which is overseeing the move of equipment and supplies back into the classrooms.

Webb says, “It’s nice to involve a local construction company. They’re doing great work and we hope to work with them more in the future.”