Repairs have been made to Betsy Cheramie Ayo and a portable floor has been placed in Stopher Gym, but repairs are still going to be made in the near future to Stopher and Shaver gyms. The University took over Ayo Hall again on Sept. 25, and classes have resumed in the building, according to Mike Davis, assistant vice president for administration.

“All brand new mattresses have been purchased Ayo Hall and have been put in place,” Davis said. “We had the building completely sanitized and cleaned, and then during the break we had to re-paint. So we’re basically done with that building.”

A few repairs still have to be made to a few of the hospital beds, according to Terry Dupre, interim director of purchasing.

Davis said a portable floor was borrowed from the City of Thibodaux and installed in Stopher Gym.

“(The basketball teams) play on it,” Davis said. “I think the men’s team is undefeated at home, so I guess we’re doing pretty good.”

Shaver Gym is not “too bad,” according to Davis and can still be used.

“There are a couple of bad spots here and there,” Davis said. “We were able to place certain things in there, but the wood that’s broken will all be replaced.”

The University is waiting on contracts to be finalized by Baton Rouge and with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Davis said.

“Once that is finished and we’re ready to issue the contract, the flooring contractors will come in and place the floor in Stopher Gym and repair in Shaver Gym,” Davis said.

According to Dupre, the bleachers will be taken out, and the floors will be ripped out and replaced with new floors. This will take anywhere from eight to 12 weeks to complete, Dupre said.

“It’s a lot of work putting the floors down again,” Davis said. “You have to make sure the moisture is just right because if it gets too much moisture, the floor swells. So, you have to make sure that the wood is at a certain moisture level.”

According to Davis, if the University receives the contracts within the next week, then within the month the gyms would have to be closed so the work can be done. This means the basketball team will have to find an alternate site to play.

Davis said that he anticipates that people are going to wonder why the University does not wait until the end of basketball season to make the repairs to the gym floors.

“We’d prefer to wait until the end of basketball season and then rip the floor up, but we have a short window to get it ready because we’re probably going to have to have graduation in the gym again this spring,” Davis said. “There’s so much uncertainty with FEMA funding that when we’re told to move, we’re going to move as quickly as we can to get FEMA to pay 100 percent of the cost.”

As of now, Davis said that FEMA is paying 90 percent of the cost for repairs, and the University is paying 10 percent.

“We do have people that are looking into it, and we’re optimistic that FEMA is going to pick up 100 percent of the cost,” Davis said.