Roof Replacement Underway at Charles C. White Pool at Haverhill High School

Roof repairs at the Charles C. White Pool at Haverhill High School in June 2020. (Courtesy photograph.)

A long-awaited $640,000 roof replacement is underway at the Charles C. White Pool at Haverhill High School.

Stanley Roofing Co. of Ipswich, which placed the winning bid, began the work this week. The contractor signed the contract in April after Mayor James J. Fiorentini pledged in January to find more than $200,000 more when bids came in high. Haverhill High School Athletic Director Thomas O’Brien tells WHAV he is happy with the progress.

“I’m grateful we’re finally getting this done. I give the mayor, City Council, School Committee a lot of credit for making this a priority. It’s been a long time coming, and we’ve been dealing with leaks—kind of leak after leak—for years now,” he says.

O’Brien says the city tried to stay on top of the leaks over the years with patches, but the roof eventually became beyond repair, impacting internal operations. After this, he says, more improvements are planned.

“Now, we can look at investing on the inside. We were hesitant to make any plans to make any significant improvements to our locker rooms, the lobby, other areas of the interior because of the leaks. We didn’t want things to get ruined,” he explains.

Although the prices may seem high, O’Brien acknowledges it is a big project.

“You know, it’s a large area. It’s a big building here and we’re replacing the entire thing. It is what it is. That’s what it costs to replace a roof of this size,” he says.

Noting Haverhill is one of the few schools with a pool in the area, many improvements pay for themselves with rentals from other schools.

Public attention turned to the pool roof last year when city councilors balked at taking $129,000 away from the project to make temporary roof repairs at the Dr. Albert B. Consentino School. Councilor Timothy J. Jordan said then he feared the pool roof wouldn’t get the attention it deserves.

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