By DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 2015) — Let’s see, it’s some kind of “holiday” today, but we can’t seem to remember which one. Saint Something-or-Other Day. Is this the day that everyone is a Protestant? Whichever one it is, have a good one. In the meantime, THE PLANET has more information to share on the damage to the Taconic High School roof by a supervised work detail consisting of seven convicts — you know, the one you weren’t supposed to know about.

This business of The Strange Case of the THS Roof Damage gets worse by the shingle, with the guano getting far deeper than the snow ever got on top of the Taconic flat top. As ever, the city isn’t coming clean on what happened.

Since neither The Boring Broadsheet nor any other mainstream medium seems to want to follow this story to its illogical conclusion, allow THE PLANET to step in the breach and share the result of our further investigation.

Chain Gangs Make Great Swiss Cheese

As you recall, the city essentially denied any serious damage occurring after a group of cons and two sheriffs went after the snow on the THS roof worth snowblowers and shovels — and what looks like pick axes, ice picks, and chain saws. After the chain gang got done,  sources say, the roof resembled a piece of Swiss cheese that had not been fed to the rats.

After THE PLANET broke the story of alleged damage, The Suits made sure to feed The BB  the sanitized version that “Everything’s just fine. There’s nothing to see here. You all can go home now. Now run along.”

Truly? If that’s the truth, why was D. J. Wooliver Roofing on the Taconic roof on Friday the 13th? Wooliver Roofing of Lanesboro is one of the area’s leading companies, servicing a range of residential, institutional, health care, commercial, and industrial clients. Wooliver did the roof for the Berkshire Museum, for example. It installs many kinds of roof systems and has a maintenance department for facility management with infrared scans, 24-hour emergency services, and roof plans. It has an excellent reputation among area contractors. As one told THE PLANET, “If they called in Wooliver, it [the damage on the THS roof] had to be bad.”

Source: Nature of Damage Indicates Deliberate Vandalism

THE PLANET learned from informed sources that in the early 90s, Wooliver Roofing installed what is known as a “Stevens Membrane” to the roof of THS. This roofing system consists of a reinforced, heat-weldable thermoplastic polyolefin (TPO). Roofing professionals say the hot-air welding used on the Stevens Membrane is the industry’s strongest, most reliable, single-ply roofing system.

If the membrane leaks, a roofer tells THE PLANET, it is almost never in the center or anywhere other than around drains and downspouts. That would preclude “an unusual compromise of the fabric.” Sources say it takes a lot of force to break through the TPO membrane. It doesn’t just happen overnight.

Let us list the facts as best as we know them:

(1) Cracks, scrapes, blisters, punctures, or cuts in a TPO membrane of the kind that reportedly occurred on the THS roof are inconsistent with routine wear-and-tear. In other words, such damage suggests either gross incompetence or deliberate sabotage.

(2) Prior to the convicts’ visit, the THS roof either wasn’t leaking or barely leaking.

(3) After the visit, the melting snow and water came down in torrents.

From these three observations, what would you conclude?

The Suits want you to believe it’s just another of those Pittsfield coincidences that happen all the time. It’s “just a coincidence” that this occurred as the vote on the new, proposed THS building gets closer. That’s not a popular vote, remember. This will be sign-off from the state then the city council.

Any one of the councilors could step forward an submit a petition calling for a citizens referendum in November. Ask yourself: Why hasn’t this been done? Could it be the pressure from certain parties is just too intense? If so, we wonder, whatever happened to courage? Whatever happened to standing up for what’s right and just? Or is that just a old rerun from the Cartoon Network? Also,

— If the damage occurred in a way that sources say, and

— If no one was supposed to know about it, and

— If the damage was deliberate, then …

… was it done to “justify” the building of a new school?

Questions from the Roof: Are they Over the Head of Citizens and Taxpayers?

One source says if Wooliver is called in for such a job, “it had to be serious. Few people can fix [this type of roof] properly.” This came from a source who worked for Wooliver for nearly 20 years.

THE PLANET wonders about this puzzling situation. Here are the pertinent questions:

• How much will the damage the city says didn’t happen cost city taxpayers?
• Who if anyone will be held accountable?
• If no one, why not? Is anyone being protected?
• What exactly was the nature of the damage?
• Who caused it? Weren’t the convicts supervised?
• What do the two sheriff’s deputies have to say? Did the city interview them? Did anyone interview the prisoners?
• Was the damage deliberate?
• Was it done to further justify the needless spending of $150 million on a new replacement high school?
• Who is responsible for inspecting school buildings in Pittsfield?
• Are the custodians the ones who first reported the problem, or did someone else do it?
• How often are the roofs inspected? When was the THS roof last inspected, prior to the damage?
• Does anyone in the city have to file regular inspection reports? If so, who?
• Are there any such reports on file?
• If so, where?
• If so, who gets the reports?
• Are they public documents.

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.