A leak in the 60-year-old Gymnasium roof caused by the recent storms has caused water to flow beneath its wood floor Contra Costa College Buildings and Grounds Manager Bruce King said.

“CCC is the oldest school in the district and they say you’re supposed to replace a gymnasium roof every 25 years,” King said. “So we definitely got our money’s worth.”

The leak in the gym has been such a persistent problem this year that the floor on the southern entrance has accumulated so much water build-up beneath the floor that the wooden beams have started to bow.

King said this is problematic because the leak is also damaging a fairly new floor that maintenance spends every summer staining and re-finishing.

During the middle of a basketball tournament about five years ago, he said it leaked so much that they had to send someone from maintenance to anchor down a tarp to cover the skylights, so the Comets could finish the game.

Since the passing of Bond Measure E in 2014, Contra Costa Community College District Facilities Planner Ray Pyle said he has met with architects to design a finalized blueprint of renovations.

Pyle said the design has finally been approved $28 million in renovations to the Gymnasium, Gym Annex Building, and the Men’s and Women’s locker rooms.

Contra Costa College Buildings and Grounds Manager Bruce King said they plan to start the project within two years.

This Washington-like weather so far this year has posed problems hosting games on the Baseball Field, but sped up the process for approving the design of the renovations.

“There was more rain and moisture compared to last year,” men’s basketball coach Miguel Johnson said. “So naturally more damage exists. If the weather is rainy, players slip and fall. During late November and December it really affected us.”

Johnson said water damage in the Gymnasium has been an issue since 2006, his first season as coach.

He said the leaks have been so bad in the past that they had to use towels to dry the floor during actual games.

Johnson said repairing the saturated floor would be an extensive job to fix, especially where in spots where the floor is bubbling and popping up.

Former Comets women’s basketball coach Paul DeBolt said the leaks throughout the Gymnasium’s existence have been caused by the design of the roof as a glass skylight that allows natural light to seep into the building.

“We have a beautiful Gym floor and it would be nice to keep it that way. But it’s hard when the roof leaks so much.”

DeBolt said the overall condition of the Gym is embarrassing as it doesn’t even compare well with local middle and high schools in CCC’s service area.

“Our men’s and women’s basketball teams deserve to play in a nice facility.”

DeBolt said when he coached, people who had not been inside the Gym for decades would walk in during practice and marvel at the fact that the Gym was the same as it was in the 1950s.

“They would say it was like going back in time,” he said.