Victoria City Council members voted Tuesday to award a contract for a new roof at the Victoria Public Library. However, Victoria County will not help fund the $798,000 project, due to aspects tied to their interlocal agreement. The Victoria Advocate reports that the library is owned by Victoria County, but operated by the city of Victoria.
“There were conversations about potentially splitting that [$757,000] fifty-fifty,” Victoria city manager Jesus A. Garza said in Tuesday’s meeting.
“The interlocal agreement incorporates other components above and beyond the library. It incorporates components associated with fire and EMS on our side. It incorporates some components of animal control on the county side. And so, the more those conversations continued, the more it became apparent that in order for there to be an agreement on the split of the library roof, we would have had to have had conversations about other aspects of the agreement.”
City officials awarded the contract to Rain King Incorporated, who expect to complete the project in May.
Roger Welder, Director of Building & Equipment Services for the city, said the 20-year old roof is overdue to be replaced. The current roof’s warranty expired five years ago.
“This is in the normal replacement cycle,” Welder said. “It's not due to any act of God, natural event that would have damaged the roof. This is just due to its age and its weathered condition. So, there is no one event that occurred that would allow insurance to become involved in this."
