There’s a shiny new floor in the recreation building at Riverside Park.
Following damaging flood waters on April 28, the building had been closed while repairs were being made. Upon installation of a new gym floor, the building reopened June 12.
Assistant City Administrator Corey Schinstock noted that other than the recent Allen County Fair, the building has been rarely used since it reopened. There’s still some work to do as well.
“We still have some carpet tiles that need to be replaced,” he said. “Thankfully, the college let us use some of their tiles during the fair,” to keep exhibits from scuffing the new floor.
Schinstock added that Recreation Director Jason Bauer may look into an alternative for the carpet tiles.
“The high school uses a thin, rubber mat that rolls out on top of the floor that would be a lot easier to lay out compared to the tiles,” he said.
In total, the city received $140,000 in FEMA flood insurance proceeds to cover the damages to the building. The money went toward the floor replacement, as well as cleaning and sanitizing the building following the flood.
“The new floor itself cost $61,000,” said Schinstock. The replacement floor is identical to what was used prior to April’s flood. “It’s a sports court made of plastic tiles that click together,” he said.
Schinstock said city staff believed they’d only have to replace the rubber padding beneath the tiles following the flood. However, moisture got trapped between the layers once they were picked up and removed for drying. “We’re not really sure what happened there,” he said. “The plastic kind of bubbled on it. We think there are ways around that if it were to flood again.”
He believes that if the top tile layer is allowed to dry before being picked up and separated from the underlayment, this could alleviate the issue. “The intent is to not have to replace the entire floor in any future flood, but to only replace the underlayment,” he said.
Other than the gym floor, the building experienced minimal damage from the flood. Schinstock noted that a sewer lift pump had to be replaced in the basement after the plastic tub it sits in cracked during the flood. “Other than that, we didn’t lose hardly anything in any of the offices or little theater,” he said.
After devastating flood waters in 2007, the city began paying a premium on an annual basis for flood insurance. “It’s a pretty good premium that we pay, so it really helps in these instances,” he said.
