An earlier plan to replace a leaking roof at EnterpriseAttendance Center is all wet.

The Lincoln County School Board was informed Monday the roof onan old building housing offices, classrooms and the cafeterianeeded immediate attention. The board then declared it as anemergency.

The roof was on a list of projects to be completed during thecourse of the year, but the situation has worsened, saidSuperintendent Terry Brister.

District One Board Member Kay Coon said the project “was in ourbudget. We just didn’t plan on having to do it before schoolstarted.”

School officials cannot point to a cause for the roof’s rapiddegradation, but said it could no longer be postponed.

The emergency declaration allows board members to circumvent thenormal construction process, which requires weeks of advertisingfor bids before a contract can be awarded for the work, toimmediately designate a contractor for the project.

Coon said with school starting Aug. 7, the board didn’t have thetime to go through the process.

“We’ve got to have those classrooms when school starts,” Coonsaid.

Cheryl Shelby, the district’s business manager, estimated thecost of the repairs at $100,000 to $200,000.

“We’re thinking it will be a pretty extensive project,” Shelbysaid.

Board members hope to have the project completed by the firstday of school.