Contractor to fix leak at Calais school

CALAIS – A construction company is back on the job after windows it installed at the high school began to leak.

And the contractor – Blaine Casey Construction of South China – is picking up the tab, according to a school official.

Except for the leaking windows, the chief contractor has done a good job overall, Superintendent Jim Underwood said Wednesday.

The problem was discovered after interior walls turned up wet and some linoleum buckled.

In 2002, voters and the state approved an $8 million renovation of the city’s high and elementary schools to accommodate the transfer of middle school pupils to both buildings after the Calais Middle School was closed for health and safety reasons.

Construction at the high school started shortly after that and the middle school pupils moved into the newly renovated facility in 2005. The original high school was built in the 1970s.

The problems with the windows began almost immediately.

Underwood explained what happened.

He said that most of the renovations were done, except for the windows, and the contractor had moved most of his work crew to Machias to start another project.

“The crew that they had left to install the windows did the windows quickly. The last part of the job looked great and they left,” the superintendent said.

Soon staff noticed a problem. “We obviously got very concerned about that and we had some of the sills taken off and we found that the installation did not meet the specifications,” he said.

An air quality specialist was brought in and found some fungus growth, but no mold. The students, Underwood said, were never at risk. “There were no issues with air quality inside,” he said.

Underwood notified the state Department of Education as well as the contractor.

Blaine Casey agreed that the problem was theirs, Underwood said. “So on their behalf once they saw it they said ‘This is not right and this is bad, we need to correct this and make sure we don’t have problems down the road,”‘ the superintendent said. “I don’t feel sorry for them, because if it had been done correctly we wouldn’t have the issue, but on behalf of Blaine Casey they admitted it was not done correctly and they are fixing it now,” he said.

The repairs are expected to be done before school starts in September.