{"id":21406,"date":"2025-07-17T21:06:41","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T21:06:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/overhead-costs-some-cortez-roofs-in-need-of-replacement-but-funding-isnt-readily-available\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:06:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:06:03","slug":"overhead-costs-some-cortez-roofs-in-need-of-replacement-but-funding-isnt-readily-available","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/overhead-costs-some-cortez-roofs-in-need-of-replacement-but-funding-isnt-readily-available\/","title":{"rendered":"Overhead costs: Some Cortez roofs in need of replacement, but funding isn\u2019t readily available"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A
A contract to replace a roof at the Cortez water treatment plant north of town was approved by Cortez City Council on July 8. (Benjamin Rubin\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cEarlier this year we had inspections done on all the city roofs,\u201d Casey Simpson, Cortez General Services director, told City Council during a July 8 meeting. \u201cAt that time it was discovered that there were multiple holes in the water plant roof.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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<\/em> in an email. Yet, the money available for these replacements depends on budgetary decisions further ahead, Simpson said.<\/p>\n

Welcome Center, Service Center and Pro Shop need roofs<\/div>\n

In the meantime, although at least three roofs need to be replaced, none are in dire condition, according to preliminary inspections.<\/p>\n

Small leaks were discovered in the recreation center roof, and some repairs already took place in an attempt to address the issue, Simpson said.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t sure where the water is entering from.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to wait for when it rains to see if the previous repair work has solved the issue,\u201d Simpson said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll three roofs are close to reaching the end of their useful life,\u201d Simpson said.<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 such as roof failure \u2013 erupts and more money needs to be spent.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the same mindset the city took when choosing to replace the water treatment plant roof, worn down by rainfall water.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat 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,\u201d Simpson told city council during the July 8 meeting.<\/p>\n

The water treatment plant\u2019s operations were not affected by the leaks, nor would it be impacted by the repairs, Simpson said.<\/p>\n

Money for the water treatment plant roof replacement came from a distinct account, the city\u2019s budgeted Water Fund Capital Projects, according to Simpson.<\/p>\n

Although City Council authorized a bid to be negotiated for the water treatment plant roof replacement, that doesn\u2019t mean Cortez has money readily available for all the other roofs.<\/p>\n

Money for roof replacements depends on budgeting<\/div>\n

Simpson said that he couldn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are trying to schedule replacement strategically so as to most thoughtfully manage a variety of budgetary priorities,\u201d Simpson told The Journal<\/em> in an email.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s water treatment plant roof.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t necessarily take a forward-looking approach to maintaining and extending the life of the roof,\u201d Quinn said of government agencies generally.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Whether degraded by sun rays, windy days or alternating temperatures, Cortez city roofs have a time cap.<\/p>\n

Still, replacements will have to wait.<\/p>\n

They aren\u2019t cheap either. Simpson said that some estimates say such costs will increase by 5-7% next year. For the city, every dollar counts.<\/p>\n

Simpson said that the 2025 budget has no funding appropriated for any more roofing projects.<\/p>\n

Money set aside for roof replacements in 2026\u2019s budget, to be approved by City Council in November, is another matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Council gave the go-ahead for a water treatment plant replacement but three other city roofs still await overhauls<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21407,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-21406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21406"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77295,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21406\/revisions\/77295"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21406"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=21406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}