Gym gets new roof after hailstorm
DECATUR — During a basketball contest at Decatur High School’s Peterson Gym in 2019, a player on the opposing girls’ team slipped on a small water spot on the floor near the top of the key on the west goal. A referee dried the spot off with a towel and the game went on. Two plays later a different player slipped and fell in the same spot.
It became apparent that there was a leak in the roof at Peterson Gym. When the spot kept coming back, Fess Thompson, the former head coach, had two junior high girls stationed on the sideline waiting to mop up the spot when the play went in the opposite direction.
Three weeks later, just prior to another home game, a heavy rain revealed that Peterson had a very serious problem when at least 10 leaks, four of them major, cropped up all over the basketball court. Fortunately, the rain stopped and the Bulldog setup manager was able to dry up all leaks and the games went on.
Steve Watkins, Decatur superintendent, contacted the school insurance company, which sent an inspector out to examine the roof. The inspector found that a late summer thunderstorm that produced large hail caused severe damage to the roof and it would need to be replaced. Again fortune favored the Decatur School District, and the roof was covered by insurance.
Three roofing companies bid for the contract to replace the roof, but only one was able to get to the project within a two-week window. Enter in the monsoons.
Week after week, the rain fell, making it impossible to work on the roof. The company needed a week of dry weather to complete the fix.
Meanwhile, under the roof, small puddles began to form on the basketball court, which in the end ruined the wax floor. But Doug Holley and his maintenance crew came up with an ingenious way to curtail the leaks on the floor by erecting tarps underneath the major leaks. This caught the water, preventing floor damage. The water in the tarps would evaporate away and basketball was able to continue through the remainder of the season.
Finally, work began June 22 on the new replacement roof as crews cleared away the old and installed the new. And, barring any unforeseen days of endless rain, the new roof should be completed by early July.