Warsaw Municipal Airport Manager Nick King told the Board of Aviation Commissioners Tuesday that they need to start thinking about the roof of the office building.

The roof leaks and needs to be replaced.  King said they are working with an architect through NGC Aviation Consultants to come up with a good remedy.

“That is something that we need to look at and either do something with yet this year or really look hard at that next year,” he said.

“It currently has two roof systems on it, so if we wanted to keep a flat roof or go to a tapered flat roof, what is up there would have to be completely demolished, taken up down to the original decking and rebuilt from that point forward,” King reported.

Back in 2013, he said a local contractor put a seal coat on the roof and the life expectancy of that “leak-free roofing” was four to five years.

King said they’ve talked with local roof companies who said it needs a “full replacement.”

Previously, he said equipment like satellite dishes and antennas sat on the roof and were held down by cinder blocks so they didn’t blow away in high winds. Divots from those blocks, some weighing as much as 2,500 pounds, can still be seen on the roof.

“Just removing that has given us a few extra years, but we’re at the point where we really need to do something,” King said.

The overhangs on the outside of the building also are old and are leaking, especially in hard rains, he said. There’s shingles missing and it needs replaced as well.

“Currently, we’re moving along with the idea of replacing the flat roof with a sloped roof and putting in a wooden truss system with a steel roof on top of that, but we’re still out with trying to get cost estimates and trying to figure out if that’s something that’s even feasible on this year’s budget or if we have to do an additional appropriation into next year,” King said.

Board President Jay Rigdon said that with what King was describing, he thought the cost might reach six figures.

“This project here, shouldn’t be more than five truthfully. But the roof itself could  be getting close to six figures,” King responded.

He said he spoke with Garland Roof Company that did the roof structure for the police department. They told him to repair the roof that the airport has now would be between $35,000 to $50,000; to replace the flat roof would be between $50,000 to $75,000; and to put on the slant steel roof was between $75,000 and $90,000.

Dan Robinson, board member, questioned those costs and if the building structure was considered any good or not for those costs.

Rigdon asked, “It seems that we’re at a hard point to make a change in the 2018 budget, aren’t we?”

King said that’s where the problem lies, whether to do an additional appropriation this year or next. Until they get estimates, he said he didn’t know how they could even make a decision on it.

When Rigdon asked if Mayor Joe Thallemer knew of the roof discussions, King said he did and “unfortunately it’s just one of those things that’s going to have to happen.”

The building is “roughly 50 (feet) by 50 (feet),” King said, later adding that he was getting as many cost estimates as he could.

King also updated the aviation board on the airport’s septic system. A couple of months ago, he told the board that the airport was having issues with the system.

“We tried working with the wastewater department to figure out what is wrong with that. Unfortunately, their equipment is too large to handle a septic system. Theirs is made for more of the city-size lines, so Weeds Septic Company is the company that has been working with the airport on the airport septic system.”

He said representatives of Weeds was at the airport recently. “They have a feeling there’s an issue between the distribution box and the leech bed and actual septic tank itself. They think there’s something wrong with that short area.”

Weeds was scheduled to call the airport today to set up an appointment to excavate down to the distribution box and inspect it before deciding how to proceed.

King said he was waiting to hear back from Weeds before he would know what an estimate would be, but in talking with the city engineer and others, $5,000 “would be way more than what the estimate would come back as for the work that will needed to be done out here.”