Residents of the Pleasant View Rest Home in Pulaski County may soon be enjoying the benefits of a roof without leaks, thanks to the “Friends of Pleasant View,” an organization dedicated to supporting the home. The roof has gone into disrepair, and a number of leaks have sprung causing further damage. The county previously wanted to close it, but the Friends of Pleasant View has been doing some fundraising to, hopefully, get this problem taken care of and put the rest home back in comfortable condition.
“It’s just been deteriorating over time because it hasn’t been roofed in quite a long time,” said Kerry Baker of the Friends of Pleasant View. “A couple years ago they decided to, or was wanting to, close it and we formed a group to support it. So we’ve been fundraising to help put a new roof on.”
The group previously asked for bids to compare the costs of shingle roofing or metal roofing and decided to use shingles, the cost of which comes to an estimated $21,742 for the roofing with half of that amount as a down payment. That price includes the cost of removing the shingles currently on the roof, for which a county highway truck may need to be borrowed to haul them away. Other bids were comparable, one of which was only about $3,000 more, while another bid was double the cost.
The organization has been holding various fundraisers to help get the funds for the roof, and they are currently almost halfway there, having raised around $9,500 toward the project. They have also applied for a grant from four REMCs, which will be awarded the third week of April. If the grant is not awarded to the group, they may have to go with their worst case scenario: having only half the funds, they may only be able to roof half of the building for the time being. If so, the main housing area for the residents would be repaired.
“We’ve been doing fish fries at the VFW, breakfast at Knights of Columbus, and a chicken noodle dinner at the Eagles,” said Baker.
The commissioners expressed their approval of the project, and County Attorney Kevin Tankerslee will be drawing up a contract for the construction. However, there have been no major decisions made, because the grant has not yet been awarded and with only half the money raised, construction can’t start yet.
“They‘re on board with us and, you know, wanting to see it go forward. We’re just waiting to see if we get the rest of the money,” said Baker.
An update is expected by the commissioners’ meeting on May 2nd, after the grant has been awarded and the availability of the funds has been guaranteed.
