ELKINS — Elkins City Council has learned that repairing the entire roof at the Phil Gainer Community Center may cost $300,000 or more.

During its July 24 meeting, council approved allowing City Operations Manager Michael Kesecker provided an update regarding the roof, which was damaged after high winds in March tore chunks of roofing off and allowed rain into the building.

Kesecker said the city had received a “$300-plus thousand” estimate from a contractor. He then asked council to allow him to look into other contractors and turn the repair project’s focus to fixing a portion of the roof instead of the entire building’s roof.

“If council will allow me to contact other contractors, see if I can get it under our bidding threshold to properly repair the part (of the roof) that was damaged, instead of temporarily repairing it like it is now,” Kesecker said. “Properly repair it, and then move forward at trying to secure funding and different options to do the rest of the roof in a timely manner.”

Kesecker explained he believed it was important, as well as quicker and less expensive, to look at a more permanent fix to the damaged portion of the roof before looking at the entire roof. He added that, if the city had the money the estimate called for, they would “go for it and do it,” but they didn’t. The city’s bidding threshold for this project, according to Kesecker, is $25,000.

The eight present council members approved the action. Third Ward Council member Christopher Lowther and Fourth Ward Council member Andrew Carroll were not in attendance.

On March 13, Elkins City Clerk Sutton Stokes informed The Inter-Mountain that “the older section of roof at the Phil Gaynor Center blew off” during a high-wind storm that day, and that “debris scattered around the building.” A video from Stokes showed rain water pouring into the gym space from holes in the roof.

When asked if this was the same section of the roof that city officials had previously said would need to be repaired after the major windstorm prior to the one on March 13, Stokes replied, “That’s correct.”

“It’s pretty substantial (damage),” Phil Gainer Community Center Facility Manager Owen Peet told The Inter-Mountain in March. “Basically, the wind took the top rubber roof layer off.”

The damage forced the Phil Gainer Center to close the building’s gym space for a week as a work crew temporarily patched the roof, affecting scheduled rentals and the Center’s ENGAGE after school program for that week.

Council will meet again on Aug. 7 at the Phil Gainer Community Center.