City buildings in Cortez, including the water treatment plant, face roof repairs after inspections revealed widespread damage, prompting City Council on Tuesday to approve the start of the negotiation process.
“Earlier this year we had inspections done on all the city roofs,” Casey Simpson, Cortez General Services director, told City Council during a July 8 meeting. “At that time it was discovered that there were multiple holes in the water plant roof.”
City Council moved to authorize a deal to replace the roof, allowing the city manager to negotiate from an initial bid of around $100,000 with contractor TopLine Exteriors.
But the water treatment plant was just one among a handful of roofs in need of repairs. Inspections earlier this year revealed that at least three other roofs are in need of replacements and one is awaiting more investigation after initial fixes, Simpson told The Journal in an email. Yet, the money available for these replacements depends on budgetary decisions further ahead, Simpson said.
In the meantime, although at least three roofs need to be replaced, none are in dire condition, according to preliminary inspections.
Small leaks were discovered in the recreation center roof, and some repairs already took place in an attempt to address the issue, Simpson said.
But more repairs might be needed. Those working on the recreation center repairs know where the water is exiting and in turn, causing leaks, but they aren’t sure where the water is entering from.
“We have to wait for when it rains to see if the previous repair work has solved the issue,” Simpson said.
As for the three city buildings with roofs in definite need of replacement, these include the Welcome Center, the Service Center and the Conquistador Golf Course Pro Shop.
“All three roofs are close to reaching the end of their useful life,” Simpson said.
None of the three roofs are leaking, according to Simpson, but he said that the city is looking to get ahead of the issue, replacing the roofs before an urgent dilemma – such as roof failure – erupts and more money needs to be spent.
That’s the same mindset the city took when choosing to replace the water treatment plant roof, worn down by rainfall water.
“What was concerning is that water was getting under the membrane, settling there and deteriorating all the insulation and other components of that roof and would lead to eventual failure,” Simpson told city council during the July 8 meeting.
The water treatment plant’s operations were not affected by the leaks, nor would it be impacted by the repairs, Simpson said.
Money for the water treatment plant roof replacement came from a distinct account, the city’s budgeted Water Fund Capital Projects, according to Simpson.
Although City Council authorized a bid to be negotiated for the water treatment plant roof replacement, that doesn’t mean Cortez has money readily available for all the other roofs.
Simpson said that he couldn’t give an estimate of how much the three roof replacements will cost, but that he hopes another replacement project can be completed on one of the roofs that could use it.
“We are trying to schedule replacement strategically so as to most thoughtfully manage a variety of budgetary priorities,” Simpson told The Journal in an email.
Roof projects by government are commonly delayed by bureaucracy, said Patrick Quinn, CEO of PRQ Exteriors, the company that owns the contractor set to replace Cortez’s water treatment plant roof.
“They don’t necessarily take a forward-looking approach to maintaining and extending the life of the roof,” Quinn said of government agencies generally.
In Southwest Colorado, everything from the high-altitude UV rays, to wind storms, to freezing and thawing can wear down a roof over time, he said.
Whether degraded by sun rays, windy days or alternating temperatures, Cortez city roofs have a time cap.
Still, replacements will have to wait.
They aren’t cheap either. Simpson said that some estimates say such costs will increase by 5-7% next year. For the city, every dollar counts.
Simpson said that the 2025 budget has no funding appropriated for any more roofing projects.
Money set aside for roof replacements in 2026’s budget, to be approved by City Council in November, is another matter.
