HOULTON, Maine — School officials at Houlton Middle-High School have been busy the past few days cleaning up water from multiple leaks in the school’s roof.
According to Superintendent Ellen Halladay, multiple leaks developed in the high school roof as a result of the heavy rain storm that passed through southern Aroostook County on Friday. The majority of water damage was confined to the school’s cafeteria, but leaks also were noticed in other portions of the building.
“We really had the perfect storm of weather conditions with the arctic freeze, followed by the thaw and pounding rain,” she explained. “We have had a contractor come in Tuesday (Jan. 16) to try and determine the cause.”
Halladay said there was “significant” water pooling on the school’s flat roof. The district’s custodial staff worked over the weekend to clear as much of that water as they could to prevent it from flowing into the building.
“There is still a little bit of dripping going on today (Wednesday), but most of the leaking has been corrected,” she said. “We want to make sure there is nothing wrong structurally that needs to be repaired.”
Halladay said no classes were impacted by the leaking roof.
In addition to the leaking roof, the high school’s kitchen was damaged Jan. 8 when a water pipe burst in the ceiling.
“It was inconvenient, but everything has been repaired,” she said. “Our kitchen crew did a remarkable job working around that issue to make sure the students had lunch.”
She did not have an estimate of the cost for repairs, but said an insurance adjuster would be visiting the school in the coming days to assess the damage.
