Leaky county jail roof up for repairs this spring

Gazette Reporter

Whitman County’s jailhouse has been a soggy bastille the last few years in which inmates and jailers alike count away the hours listening to drips in a bucket.

The roof of the county jail is leaking badly.

“We need a new roof real bad,” said Jail Capt. Bob Ingalls.

The 26-year old roof has been leaking so badly that the ceiling, hit by leaks, has cracked in spots and is sagging.

“It just doesn’t make sense to put on a flat roof in this country,” said Bob Reynolds, county facilities manager. “But it’s cheap to do it, so they did it a lot.”

The county patched the roof last winter, but the spotty fix made rainwater find new ways into the jail.

“In some ways it just made it worse,” said Ingalls. “The water just found new spots to leak.”

Whitman County this week issued a call for bids to put a new roof on the county jailhouse.

Three potential contractors toured the jail roof Tuesday morning to gauge its condition and prepare bids. Those bids will be opened by county commissioners Monday, March 29.

Funds for the project are included in the county’s capital expense budget for the year.

The new roof will be the jail’s first full replacement since it was constructed in 1984.

Reynolds said the new roof will be like a vinyl tarp with a fleece back to help adhesion and welded seams to hold it down.

He added the contractor will have to bring in a crane to lift the chiller off the roof to replace beneath it.