Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1917-07-19
SCHOOL BUILDINGS
Needed Improvements Thereto In
Mineral Point.

few weeks ago. They are so well set
forth in a report Of the building COM
mittee of the school board that we pub
ish it in full The report says:
To the members of the School Board, the
Building Committee submits the following
report: g.,
A. We will first consider the High Schooi
Building After inspecting the building from
basement to roof we concluded the first and
most important Of all the repairs would be the
roof.
This roof is the original roof placed there
when the building was built about fourteen
years ago. the material being slate shingles
with tin or galvanized iron cutters. After ex-
amining tbs roof we find some Of the shingles
are broken and have fallen into the cutters,
leaving an open space where they were, with
nothing but the wood sheeting exposed to the
weather. When repairs have previously been
made for this same trouble, the parties repair
ing the same have done by boring holes IN
the slate shingles and driving nails through the
holes to hold the shingles in place. This
leaves the nails exposed to the weather, and III
time these nails rust and have not sufficient
strength to hold the shingles SO does not make
a permanent job. The most important leaks
appear to be in the cutters and these have never
been painted or protected in any way Of the ac-
ton Of the air and the result is that the Uin or
iron is rusted and in places holes appear clear
through the gutter. AS these cutters carry the
total flow Of water from the roof you can readl
ly see how much water would run through
these small holes. The rafters and supporting
timbers under some Of these leaks have already
started to decay. The slate shingles on this
roof appear to be inferior in some respects as
they chip off and pieces drop out Of the shingles,
these pieces collect in the cutters. The roof as
a whole is a difficult one to cover, there being
SO many gables and valleys which require 50
many cutters and ridge plates.
Mr. Ludden informed the Committee that he
could obtain an expert slate roofer to inspect
the roof and advise as to the proper method to
repair same. AS the stating of roofs is trade
and no tradeSman Of this kind are in our city,
the building committee recommends that Mr.
Ludden be instructed to send for this man and
have him inspect the roof thoroughly and make
Il complete report of the same to the School
Board When this report is made and the
amount Of money required to make the repairs,
as stated in the mans report is known, and
should the amount exceed what we think should
be expended on an old roof, we would suggest
new roof of other material than slate. Prob
ably an asbestos or asphalt shingle such as are
installed on large roofs of similar designs to
this roofs SO we recommend for this roof that
the board obtain the services of this man, and
after his report is read, if the old roof can be
made as good as a new roof at reasonable
figure, steps be taken at once to do the same.
Houava, ChOuI1 thp amount he large to
equal the cost of a new roof of other suitable
material we suggest that prices be obtained
from the manufacturers of this material and
submitted to the board for their consideration.
B. The committee while the roof, looked
up the complaint of the ianitor as to the danger
he was exposed to while hoisting the flag on the
flag staff which is on the roof. We found it as
he stated; very unsafe and suggest to the board
that an iron railing made of "a steam pipe be
placed around the landing, the railing to be in
: alled as per description furnished by the
! lard.
G.. The Committee recommends that when
the roof is repaired, that an exhaust fue be eX
tended up through the roof which connects
with the ventilating flues from the rooms be-
low, also to the chemical laboratory which at
times is filled with fumes generated by the
chemicals which the classes are working with
and which are harmful to the health of the stn-
dents suitable hood SHOULD be installed in
the laboratory in which these fumes are col
lected, the top of such hood to be connected
with proposed exhaust iue which extends up
through the roof.
D. The Yentilating system of the school build
ing was never completed. We understand for
lack of funds, the original system specified in
the original plans was only partly completed.
The fresh air flues are connected to each room,
also the exhaust tlues or tiues carrying the i'm
pure air from the rooms are also connected to
each room and these exhaust fiues dis
charge into the attic. Some time since the
building was build the authorities have install
ed an electric fan in each room at the inlet to
the eXhaust.tiu the idea being to draw the i'm
pure air out Of the room and forced it up the
exhaust tlue. This was found impracticable on
account of the hum or buzzing caused by the
motor, also the sparkling or arcing of tne motor,
which is caused generally from want of atten-
ton, as they should be cleaned every day.
These motors are now laying idle, disconnected
and never used. The committee suggests plac
ing Tentilating fan, direct connected to motor,
in basement. This fan would force warm,
fresh air in all of the rooms of the school
building. the same air being forced out Of the
room rs impure air, through the exhaust fues,
up through the roof. This would give the
ianitor only one motor to look after, which
would be situated in the basement near where
he would be during the day The electric wires
are now in the bnilding which would be re-
quired for this motor.
E. The present heating system in the Domes-
tic Science and the Manual Training rooms, also
other rooms in the basement is entirely wrong.
All of the radiators in these rooms are hung to
the ceiling, this being the only way under the
present system that live steam can be forced
into these radiators. The boiler for the heat
ing system is placed in room the basement
and is 50 placed that the water level in the
boiler is about four feet above the basement
floor. This means that all of the pipe Connec-
tions in the basement are full of water four
feet above the floor level. AS all of the radia-
tors are hung against the ceiling, the hot air
is all against the ceiling and the cold air re-
mains on the floor. At times it is so cold that
the classes have to be dismissed. In order to
remedy this, we suggest that the radiators be
nIaced on the floor in suitable places, the steam