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RINGWOOD - Work on Ryerson roof should be done by Sept.
(by Teresa Edmond - Staff Writer - August 06, 2008)
RINGWOOD - The school district is exploring the possibility of doing away with the outdated light fixtures on the middle school’s rooftop once the roof’s replacement is complete.
Right now, the almost 30-year-old light fixtures sit on the edge of the Martin J. Ryerson Middle School rooftop, and the rooftop is getting replaced this summer. The VMG Group, a Paterson-based company, should wrap up the project before school starts next month.
At the July 28 Board of Education meeting, Interim Business Administrator James Mallen pointed out the two benefits of equipping the school’s exterior with light fixtures. Besides improving the building’s appearance, the lights would help residents to better spot potential troublemakers prowling school grounds at night.
“When a building is well lit, there’s less chance that the kids around there are creating mayhem or causing violence,” he said. “Lighting tends to discourage kids from hanging around, especially in the back area, and doing things they shouldn’t do.”
Board of Education President Richard Schaefer spread the word about pending plans for Ryerson’s new light fixtures in a July 29 mass e-mail dispatched to the school community. He pointed out the lights’ significance in his e-mail.
“Anyone looking for their car in the Ryerson parking lot after an event at Ryerson knows how poor the lighting is late at night,” he wrote.
The light-fixture project won’t cost extra because the district’s contingency funds for the roofing project will pay for it, Schaefer wrote. The state-of-the-art lighting is expected to cost between $15,000 and $20,000, he said.
Last April, voters gave the green light to the $1.3 million roof project, which would address the roof’s leaking and overall shabby condition. In 1990, the district had to spray foam on Ryerson School’s roof to repair it. The school was first built in 1970.
If the district acquires contemporary lighting fixtures, they will be energy efficient and won’t get embedded into the rooftop, Mallen said. Rather, they’ll be installed into the building’s sides so the district would avoid damaging the new roof and then repairing it years down the road.
“The lights will be fixed to the sides so we won’t have to penetrate the membrane of the roof and worry about the roof’s integrity,” he said.
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