Repairs to the Gabel Hall pool are finished and $221,300 has been appropriated to repair and convert the building’s adjacent gym into a dance studio.

Both the pool and gym were damaged because of Gabel’s leaking roof. The pool was closed in December 1985. During reconstruction of the roof over the pool, water leaked through the roof covering the gym located across the hall from the pool damaging the floor.

Physical plant project manager Conrad Miller said NIU is seeking a $13,000 settlement from the roof contractor’s insurance company, since the gym floor began warping after a six-inch summer rain seeped in through the roof construction.

Miller said water entered the building from the roof construction area, ran through the gym walls, and caused warping of the floor.

He said there had been warping problems in the gym before, but they were intensified when more moisture contacted the floor surface.

“Gabel Hall was built on what was a swampy area at the time,” Miller said. “That may have added to the moisture in the gym, but I’m not sure that’s a valid explanation.”

Miller said it would be “foolish” spending $6,000 on a gym floor replacement.

“When we first went into the room,” Miller said, “it (the gym floor) looked like a large tumor.”

Miller said the floor remains unrepaired.

“The warping has subsided somewhat, but it won’t get down without spending some money,” he said.

Demolition of the pool area roof began July 20, 1987, and the contractor finished work Aug. 30, 1987.

The project was expected to end earlier, but the time taken to obtain bids and funds to re-grout the pool delayed the project’s completion until late Dec. 1987, Miller said.

“It (the project) took longer than expected because the money originally budgeted for re-grouting was an inadequate amount,” he said. “The bids we received were larger than we had expected the re-grouting to cost.”

Miller said the dance studio project is one of 77 the physical plant is working on.

“It’s not an inexpensive remodeling project,” he said.

Funds for the dance studio project were appropriated from NIU’s Build Illinois Program fiscal year 1988 budget.