LATHROP – Captain Don Jones of the Lathrop-Manteca Fire District Station 32 near the Nile Garden School received his official marching orders to finish the reroofing of the building as expeditiously as possible.

At the last meeting of the district’s board of directors, Jones told the five-member panel that there will be additional costs involved in the repairs on top of the $5,000 that has already been approved “because we do have a lot of dry rot.”

Since the extent of the structural damage is not known until the roofing contractor has actually removed the gutters, Jones could not give an exact figure as to how much additional funds will be needed for the repairs.

“It will probably take more money (than the $5,000 already allocated) to complete the job,” Jones said.

The contractor has not given any firm numbers yet as to the overall expenses; nevertheless, Jones said he wanted the board to know that there will be additional costs incurred.

He offered a little bit of good news though.

“The roof is fine but there’s a lot of gutter leakage,” he said.

He added, “We don’t have a choice, we have to do the repairs.”

Jones estimated that the additional funds needed to finish the job could be in the ball park of $2,300. Noting the necessity of getting the leakage problem fixed especially during the rainy season, and before the problem gets even worse and become more expensive to repair, the board told Jones to go ahead and do what needs to be done.

“If it’s $5,000 (extra funds that’s needed), then that’s what it is,” commented board chairman Bennie Gatto.

Fire Chief Manding said this structural problem is nothing new.

“The roof issue has been going on for 11 years,” he told the board.

Manteca Roofing won the bid for the project out of three bids received by the district.

Station #32 is located at 22701 South Union Road in Manteca. It was built in 1976, the same time Station 33 on East Lathrop Road near New Haven School was constructed.

The repair project was scheduled earlier but it was delayed due to bad weather. The contractor is expected to get all repairs done in two and a half days.

Station #32 on South Union Road is one of four stations in the district. The main station is located on J Street in downtown Historic Lathrop. The fourth and newest station, completed about three years ago, is located at 460 River Islands Parkway at Mossdale Landing.