St. Pat’s roof collapse causes substantial damage
Posted Mar 27, 2015 06:53:57 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Heavy snow caused part of the roof of the former St. Patrick’s High School to collapse Friday morning.
City spokesperson Tiffany Chase says a structural engineer was brought in, and recommended tearing down the corner where the roof collapsed.
The city brought in a excavator to take down those walls, and it’s putting up a fence to keep people out of the vacant building.
“It’s one corner of the building that had twisted as a result of the roof collapsing in that area,” said Chase. “We brought an excavator on site this morning and were able to take down those few concrete walls as a precaution.”
Chase says the city will be putting up a fence to make sure the public doesn’t get into the vacant building.
She says the city was maintaining the property at a cost of $350,000 a year, but not the roof.
“This property was not a priority as part of our regular building maintenance program for removing snow from roofs of facilities, and that’s because it was vacant and no public access was taking place on site,” she said.
The city has been planning to rezone the property and sell it off, and had a tender out for the demolition of the building.
Chase says the deadline for bids on that work will now be extended.
The school closed in 2007, and city council cleared the way for the building’s demolition in July.
