(Atlantic) The Atlantic School Board met for an emergency meeting on Wednesday evening to approve bids to mitigate the water-related damages to the Middle School. Firefighters were called to the blaze at 12:37 p.m. on Tuesday for a roof fire. The fireman contained the blaze from penetrating the interior of the building, but the school sustained extensive water damage.
Scott Signor, the Corporate Loss Specialist for EMC Insurance, says First Onsite Property Restoration out of Des Moines submitted the low bid of $875,000 for the mitigation Phase only. Phase I includes the removal of the water and deodorization of the structure. Signor says this does not include the repair costs to the structure; he says it “will be significant.”
Signor says the second thing that happened on Wednesday, is Precision Roofing, a large partner of EMC’s that handles large catastrophic events, arrived on site and walked the roof line., and particularly around the area of the origin of the fire.
Atlantic Schools Superintendent Steve Barber says the building will not be available to students or staff for the foreseeable future. “We were told this afternoon the middle school would not be available to students and staff at the start of the school year,” said Barber. “We still have a lot of questions to answer, and we got an answer today; we can’t be in that building. We will go back to the drawing board and figure out what to do and what’s best for our middle school students.”
This is a developing story that KSOM/KS95 News will continue to follow in the coming days.
