Several sections of The Strand Theater roof that were damaged by an afternoon storm in September of 2021 will soon be replaced, according to city officials.
Debris from the storm also punctured a section of the former Star-Herald office’s roof that caused water to pour into several newspaper offices.
At the city’s April 5 Board of Aldermen meeting, the Board accepted a bid from Dixie Roofing of Winona, totaling $124,985 to replace the roof.
Kosciusko Mayor Tim Kyle said A1 Roof Savers of Jackson serviced the building after the initial damage and applied a temporary fix to the building’s main structure. Since then, the city has struggled to find a contractor to complete what’s left of the job.
“Everybody was so busy with roofing that you couldn’t find a contractor that wanted to do it or could do it,” said Kyle. “Also, this work is not only roofing. There’s a lot of brick damage back there. That back wall and those back corners of the building have to be fixed too.”
According to Kyle, when the damage occurred, the city’s insurance never sent an adjustor to assess damages. He said a $40,000 claim was estimated from Birmingham.
Kyle said the insurance company later sent an outside adjustor from Memphis who said that the entire roof needed replacing.
“Insurance is great to work with,” said Kyle. “It’s just finding people to do it. So now, we're just in the waiting process of waiting on contractors show up to repair that.”
The city has already done some demolition work on the inside of The Strand and removed a lot of its front wall. Kyle said a lower-level floor in the building, that may have been unknown to former visitors, was constructed with tongue-and-groove wooden panels, which can be used for other projects.
The city accepted a bid to remove the paneling and reached a 60/40 percent agreement, allowing the city to retain 40 percent of the wood.
“Whenever that building is finished, it will need new flooring. And part of the things that we hope to do with that is to use some of that old tongue-and-groove there as part of our entrance way into the building,” said Kyle. “We could say, ‘Hey, this is part of the original flooring that was in The Strand when it was built.’”
Kyle said a representative from Old House Depot of Jackson came to Kosciusko to look at the wood, and said the wood seemed to be from the 1920s or early 1930s. He recommended that offices in the former Star-Herald building receive some of the tongue-and-groove wood, as well as adding a plank to The Strand’s main entrance.
“I hope the wood works out to where we can do that,” said Kyle.
Kyle said the overall goal for The Strand is to make it a multi-use building, that will make it partly a Native American museum as well as an event center. He described a vision for The Strand that will allow guests to enjoy an historical experience.
“Up above and especially on the sides, from where the upper stair balcony was, that will be extended down towards the stage, about eight to 10 feet on each side with glass walls. All your artifacts and museum pieces will be up there. If you're in some type of event, you can look up and you are kind of having an event in a museum. It’s a really good concept, and I pray we can get that going. We still have over a million dollars left for that. As soon as I can get the floor completely out of that, the companies that are coming in to tear everything that’s back left in the ceilings can come in and scaffold up. Once we get that removed, we hope to get the remainder part. Then, we will start the first phase of construction which would be electrical and plumbing,” said Kyle. “I don’t know how far a million dollars will go with that, but we have plans to do it as we can. It would be something great to have for this community.”
