Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
The heavy rains experienced in Pocahontas County last week may have been beneficial for the Great Greenbrier River Race, but it was damaging to the Pocahontas County Board of Education office.
Due to the age of the roof and normal wear and tear on the former junior high building, one office room suffered a major leak, causing several ceiling tiles to collapse, somewhat flooding the room.
Leaks are not new to the board office. It is common to see buckets and trash cans collecting water anytime it rains.
“It’s typical of what’s happening to our board office and what will soon be happening to our schools if we don’t address our issues,” superintendent Terrence Beam said. “We had another episode Saturday night and [treasurer Sherry Radcliff] had to come over and she worked two-and-a-half hours to clean up more of the mess.”
Fixing the problem is a big issue for the board office because the maintenance budget is dwindling.
“We’re trying to figure out a way to funnel the rain outside with some kind of tarp or something,” Beam said. “It would cost us, at a minimum, $4,000 to fix that part of the roof and that doesn’t even guarantee it fixes it. We hate to spend that kind of money with no guarantee that it’s going to be fixed.”
Maintenance director Ron Hall and maintenance assistant Darin McKenney are working on a solution to fix the issue at minimum cost.
“We’re trying to look at other options as our building continues to deteriorate,” Beam said. “We don’t have anywhere really to move the central office at this point.”