Baker seeking roofing quotes

Baker seeks quotes
to repair auditorium

BAKER — The city’s purchasing agent worked Thursday to get price quotations from roofing contractors for emergency repairs to the auditorium section of the Baker Municipal Center, Mayor Harold Rideau said.

The building includes municipal offices, an auditorium for civic functions and meeting rooms for public activities.

Strong winds from Hurricane Isaac peeled back part of the building’s roof late Wednesday, throwing large sections of roof insulation and other debris on the municipal building and Baker High School’s lawns.

“It’s like you took it and folded it back,” Rideau said of the roof’s top metal cover.

“It must have been straight-line winds, but we’ve had stronger winds than that without any problems,” Rideau said.

The mayor said the building was reroofed in 2006-07 at a cost of $91,000.

Roosevelt Bryant, Rideau’s administrative assistant, said second-story offices for the city treasurer and other city employees near the auditorium were not damaged by the water that poured into the building, nor were the mayor’s office, City Council chambers and utility billing department on the ground floor.

Repairs start on roof of Faith Academy

GONZALES — Volunteers and staff members at Faith Academy spent much of Thursday cleaning up the school and trying to patch its roof after Isaac ripped off a large chunk on Wednesday.

Scott Bledsoe, the pastor of Household of Faith, the church that runs Faith Academy and its sister school, Ascension Christian, said the school’s roof was damaged, which allowed water to seep in and damage “seven or eight” classrooms.

Several people were using the church, which is adjacent to Faith Academy on Airline Highway, as a storm shelter on Wednesday when they heard what they described as a “mini-twister” around 9 p.m., Bledsoe said.

Besides the roof, which was patched temporarily using tarps, and the water damage in the classrooms, Bledsoe said, there was no other damage to the school or church. A roofing company was scheduled to begin repair on the building on Friday, he said.

The repair work likely will take “at least a couple of weeks,” Bledsoe said. In the meantime, he said, classes will resume on Tuesday following the Labor Day holiday.

“We’ve got space,” Bledsoe said. “We’ll just move things around.”

Bledsoe said Ascension Christian’s campus, which is located off of Germany Road near Galvez, did not receive any damage and also would reopen on Tuesday.

Deputy not injured when tree hits car

ST. FRANCISVILLE — A West Feliciana Parish sheriff’s deputy was spared serious injury or death when a strong gust of wind blew a tree onto the hood of his patrol car, Sheriff J. Austin Daniel said Thursday.

Cpl. Gerald Smith was checking Sligo Road for trees downed by Hurricane Isaac’s winds Wednesday when a 10-inch tree crashed inches from the patrol car’s windshield, Daniel said.

Smith was not injured, he said.

Daniel said the car was demolished by the impact.

“It hit the car so hard that the motor wouldn’t turn over,” the sheriff said.

Daniel said no injuries were reported as a result of the storm, and the parish received only 4 to 5 inches of rain.

Several houses were damaged by falling trees, but no one was hurt, he said.

Advocate staff writers James Minton and Bret McCormick contributed to this report.