Camas approves $1.1M library roof

The Camas City Council has approved a $1.1 million emergency request to replace the roof on the Camas Public Library.

The Council approved the $1,112,210 expense, which includes sales tax, during its Aug. 15 meeting, as part of the consent agenda.

“Time is of the essence here,” Will Noonan, the city’s operations manager, told Council members during their Aug. 15 workshop. “The tiles and tar paper on the roof have reached the end of their life and, based on inspections, there is rot throughout the underlying plywood.”

Noonan added in his report to the Council that the current library roof, installed in 2003, consists of concrete tiles over a single layer of tar paper.

“The concrete tiles are porous, not watertight,” Noonan noted, adding that the roof has been leaking for about five years, with a “significant leak” occurring in the fall of 2021.

“At that time, it was discovered the tar paper was compromised and water had soaked through the underlying plywood,” Noonan said. “This is a priority project due to the necessity of replacing the roof as soon as possible.”

On Aug. 15, the Council approved a contract with the lowest bidder — the Cleveland, Ohio-based Garland/DBS, Inc. — to replace the library roof.

The contractors will remove the library’s existing roof tiles, tar paper and debris down to the deck to inspect for dry rot. If they find dry rot, they also will replace those portions of the roof. The contractor also will install high-temperature seal over the wood deck; and remove and replace gutters and downspouts.

Noonan said city staff will be “in constant communication” with Garland/DBS and the workers to “work together to minimize the impact on the library operations.”

The library’s roof replacement was one of the nearly $35 million worth of needed upgrades and repairs to the city of Camas’ publicly owned buildings noted in a city consultant’s facilities condition assessment report completed in late 2021.

Noonan said city staff have applied for a Department of Commerce grant that could be used “to offset some of the city’s costs” for the library roof replacement project.