A bad roof patching job at City Hall led to a rainwater leak last week that caused roughly $5,000 to $10,000 worth of damage to computer equipment, according to an early estimate by city Fire Chief Keith Weaver.

The leak, which happened the night of March 27, was discovered the morning of March 28, just one week after the city's roofing repair contractor, Fantastic, patched up a leak in the same area, city Public Works director Gary Chmielewski said on March 28.

"I guess with the weather, the sun, the heat, it curled up the rubber that they put down to patch (the roof), and that came up. When the rain came, guess what happened? All the water came through," he said.

Weaver said the water mainly leaked into the Fire Department's "compliance room," located on the upper floor of the south side of City Hall. Some computer equipment got wet, but no water got inside the electronics, he said.

"It was all up and running within approximately five hours," the fire chief said, adding that an inventory of the damage is still being taken.

Though the computers appear to be working, they will be further inspected for any damage.

"We don't know if it's going to be rusting in the future, or any other future issues, so we will be working with our IT people to potentially request reimbursement for replacement equipment," Weaver said. "If I had to give you a ballpark figure (of the damages), it'd probably be between $5,000 and $10,000."

The fire chief said last week that damage estimates are expected to be completed this week.

Chmielewski said the roofing contractor returned to City Hall to stop any further leakage, and that the contractor will be paying for all damages caused by the incident.

Permanent repairs on the roof of City Hall are nearing completion and are slated to be completed this week, Weaver said Saturday.

Jonathan Lin may be reached at jlin@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @jlin_jj.

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