By Jason Klaiber
Staff Writer
In mid-August, Peterson Roofing Company, Inc. of Olean started repairing the roof of the Hickey Dining Hall at St. Bonaventure.
Much of the same roof has been in place since the dining hall’s opening in 1931. According to Phil Winger, associate vice president for facilities, the structure of the tile roof is “very long-lived” in comparison to the 20-to-30-year lifetime of a normal flat roof system.
“If I look at (the repairs) from a standpoint of expense, it’s not expensive because you don’t have to do it very often,” Winger said.
The university ordered maintenance of the Hickey in the past, replacing the center section of its roof and renovating its interior in 2006.
“At that time, it was giving some trouble,” Winger said. “The lower end sections were not giving trouble at the time. We recognized it would be a good idea to replace them too, just to be done, but the budget wasn’t available until this year.”
Winger said the maintenance of the roof requires difficult and specialized work, which the local contractors carry out from 6:45 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. unless a problem arises and needs extra attention.
“Even most roofing contractors wouldn’t have as much familiarity with [the tile roof],” he said.
The investment in the current project added up to $12 to $15 million. However, a lower financial figure described the level of deferred maintenance—the practice of postponing maintenance or repairs—the roof accrued. The goal of the repairs is to make the structure not just new, but better than new, Winger said.
“Nationally, it’s a big issue, and it has to do partly with just the age of facilities and partly with economic hard times in the past ten years,” Winger said. “We’re investing in the present, so maybe that’s good.”
The campus’ overall cost of deferred maintenance stands at about $11.5 million, a difference from the roughly $14 million in deferred maintenance that the university sought to address in 2008. Road paving on campus and last year’s renovation of Robinson and Falconio halls caused the decrease.
“Our $11.5 million deferred maintenance list at present is at the low end of what other institutions would report for the amount of buildings we have,” Winger said. “We don’t replace things just because they’re old. We replace them because they’re getting too hard to fix. We are in control of our own money, so we would rather keep repairing things than replace them as long as that’s economical. It’s sort of like keeping a car that’s got 100,000 miles on it and still performing its function.”
Steve Tomaino, a sophomore history education major, thinks that it’s beneficial for the university to keep up on repairs.
“I think it’s great that (the university) is refurbishing the roof after so many years,” Tomaino said. “I like that they’re looking out for the students and the newest tiles.”
Justin Peterson, a senior journalism and mass communication major, said he’s glad the roof is being improved and no wrong can come from refurbishing a part of campus.
Winger said the Hickey roof repair project will be finished in about three weeks. The next project in sight for the university is to replace the roof over the residential life offices and the gym in the Reilly Center.
klaibejj14@bonaventure.edu
