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February 19, 2004Roof worries close Kingsley HighOfficials will meet with engineer todayByRecord-Eagle staff writer and By Record-Eagle staff writer KINGSLEY - It wasn't snowing here but hundreds of high school students enjoyed a snow day all the same. School officials released about 430 Kingsley High School students from classes at 10 a.m. Wednesday because of concerns about the weight of a 4-foot snowdrift on the high school roof. Most of the snow was removed, but students won't be back in class today at the 3-year-old school because of continued concern, superintendent Michael Jurgensen said. "The reason is we need to get ahold of the structural design engineer ... ," he said. "We'd rather be safe than sorry." The building was designed by Birtles Hagerman DeKryger Architects of Cadillac. JDH Engineering of Grandville served as structural engineer. School officials plan to meet with the engineer today to see what damage was done. Jurgensen said there is no damage or roof buckling in the classrooms. He is worried about the trusses and the mechanical rooms. "We definitely had some settling up there and that concerns us greatly," he said. Principal Terry Street said the school's head maintenance worker told him about the snow problem Tuesday morning. The large drift was on a pitched roof on the east side of the high school. "There were a couple of spots that looked like they were under undue pressure," Street said. Jurgensen said the district tries to keep the roof dry, but when the building was constructed the district was told it wouldn't have to shovel. "Of course, this is the worst winter that we've had in the last 10 years maybe, and we had a major drift," Jurgensen said. Hallmark Construction of Traverse City served as general contractor during construction. Project manager David Williams said Hallmark was unaware of the problem. Six workers from Springfield Construction in Kingsley helped shovel the high school roof. "We did not do the original roof ... , but we are always happy to help Kingsley, it's our local school," owner Terry Umlor said. A board meeting to discuss a personnel matter regarding elementary principal Karl Hartman will be moved to the middle school library at 6:30 p.m. today, Jurgensen said.
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