Elementary school in St. Germain seeks cash for fireworks damage to roof

During a town board meeting on Monday, Aug. 14, supervisors in St. Germain voted unanimously to reject a request from Northland Pines Elementary School - St. Germain for cash compensation. School officials claim the town’s July 4 fireworks display damaged the building’s roof.

Town Board Chairman Tom Christensen served on the school board from 2000 to 2009. He informed his fellow supervisors the situation is not without precedent.

“A little history: when I was on the school board, two examples of this happened,” he said. “This happened to the St. Germain Elementary School one year by St. Germain fireworks. And that year, it was to the point where the roof had to be replaced. The town at that time told the school district ‘That’s your building; that’s your insurance, and you need to file a claim.’ And they did file a claim and the school district’s insurance paid for it. And to my knowledge, the school district paid the deductible for the claim.”

“The second situation in my history on the school board was the middle school roof (in Eagle River) was damaged by the fireworks display at the derby track, and that roof needed to be replaced completely,” Christensen told the board. “And again, the derby track told the school district that was their responsibility; that was their insurance. And their insurance company paid for it. To my knowledge, the school district paid the deductible. That’s what I remember.”

School officials called in Custofoam Roofing Solutions of Mauston to assess the roof following the fireworks display.

Christensen told the board he had received “two pieces of paper from Custofoam Roofing Solutions. The first one is an actual invoice for $651. That’s a roof inspection of fireworks damage at the St. Germain Elementary School. And the second one is a proposal for damage they saw — that took $651 to tell them — is $985 to fix. That’s what the school district is asking us to pay, because our fireworks have damaged their rubber roof on the St. Germain Elementary School.”

“I think this is a claim against the school district’s insurance,” Christensen said. “However, the school district has a $20,000 deductible, so they’re asking us to pay the amount so that they don’t have to pay anything. And I guess there’s precedents out there that their roofs have been damaged by fireworks in two different times prior to this, and the school district has paid for the damage.”

“Custofoam came up specifically to inspect the roof for fire damage from the fireworks,” he said, “So they are asking us to pay both of those: $651 plus $985.”

So, if we were to say ‘No, your insurance should cover it’, then they can get ahold of our insurance company and take care of it that way?”supervisor Brian Cooper asked.

“That would be the correct way of doing it, where they to file a claim,” Christensen replied. “However, they won’t file a claim because they have a $20,000 deductible, so there’s no claim to be filed … I don’t know how they make a claim against our insurance company ... I think if that damage was on our roof, we wouldn’t file a claim for it, either. We would just have the roof fixed, because it doesn’t make sense to file a claim.”

“I know I sound like a lawyer here,” Cooper said, “But do they know that prior to our fireworks display, that roof was not damaged?”

“I can’t answer that,” Christensen said. “They didn’t tell me that.”

 “What prompted them to suspect that there was damage?” supervisor Ted Ritter wanted to know. “What prompted the inspection?”

 “It’s my understanding that after each one of the firework displays, (a school district employee) goes up and looks ... Because of past damage,” Christensen answered.

Custofoam’s inspection pointed out five places where the flat roof over the school’s gymnasium suffered damage. The company sent documentation to Christensen.

“There are pictures,” Christensen told the board, “But it just looks like a spot on a roof.” He said the photos provided no scale, so the size of the damage was difficult to discern. “They don’t say how big these spots are, so they could be the size of a quarter, I would think,” he said.

“Whose property are we on when the fireworks are being let off?” supervisor Kalisa Mortag asked 

“The town’s,” Christensen answered. “It’s probably that the wind is just the right miles per hour in the right direction where everything falls into line and it happens. But it doesn’t happen very often, obviously, because this isn’t an every-year event.”

“It’s been 14 years at least — probably more than that — since there was any damage,” Christensen said. “My personal opinion is that it still falls under the same decision that was made years ago by two different entities: it’s the responsibility of the school district, and not that of the town.”

He said the school district is “Looking to save money however they can, and we’re looking to save money, too.”

From the audience, resident Phil Monday expressed a different opinion.

“If you remember, right before we had the fireworks, I brought up the fact that with the dry conditions and all that, the town should probably back off on the fireworks this year,” he said. “Well, the town gave the company permission to have the fireworks, so I think the town should be liable for repairing that roof.”

The board voted its disagreement with Monday’s stance, but either way, the taxpayers of St. Germain are the ones who will ultimately end up paying the bill.

 “I feel it would be appropriate to discuss it with (the school district) and come up with some ideas how to make sure it doesn’t keep happening; preventative measures or something,” Mortag said.

“They’re really open to having that discussion,” Christensen replied. “That building opened in 1995, if I remember correctly. And it’s 2023. It’s 28 years old, and the damage has happened twice. One really bad time, the roof had so much damage it made more sense to replace it than fix it. This time, it’s very minor damage, based on the estimates.”

“They’re willing to talk about whatever you want to do,” he said. “At one point, there was discussion about flooding the roof with foam or something like that...I don’t think it was ever done, but it did come up.”

Tim Clark, a former fire chief in St. Germain, was in the audience.

 “After that last claim that the school had, the fire department used to put somebody up there on the roof … while the fireworks were going on,” he said.

Cooper, who currently serves on the fire department, said that practice should be reinstated. “Maybe put a guy up there with a water-pack,” he said.

“I will let them (the school’s buildings and grounds crew) know that we are open to any suggestions, so we can maybe work together to prevent this from happening in the future,” Christensen concluded.