The south floor of the recreation center, which needed to be replaced due to water damage caused by a ruptured sprinkler, is being repaired.     
The sprinkler ruptured when a soccer ball hit the sprinkler head and activated the system during a soccer game last May.
The repairs in the Michael Childs Gymnasium located in the Harold J. Callais Memorial Recreation Center will be completed by September 1 after an estimated 30-day repair process. Until then, repairs are not expected to interfere with intramurals, which have been pushed back a few days to allow enough time to train on the courts.
Intramural Recreation Coordinator, Kristen Fillmore, assured that renovations will not affect training time. ” That’s why we’re gonna go ahead and push back the start date a little bit, just to give people time to practice and everything. So, that’s why we’re starting on the 16th instead of earlier to get people a couple of weeks to get in there.” 
Intramural volleyball is set to begin on September 16 with a registration deadline on September 11, and flag football begins on October 7 with a registration deadline on October 2. More sign up information can be found at imleagues.com/nicholls
Fillmore, who was present at the time and helped with cleanup efforts after the accident, said, “It was more like a fire hose than an actual sprinkler head. It was shooting out everywhere. It was a steady stream of water.”
Immediately, students were evacuated from the center as the staff tried to assess the situation. Campus Police was contacted who then contacted the maintenance department to shut off the water supply. In the meantime, the water was swept out through the back door and mopped by the staff to prevent the water from accumulating.
This being a first time occurrence, it took about 15 minutes for personnel to find the shutoff valve. A large puddle formed on 3/4 of the south court before the valve was closed.
Water leaked through the cracks, causing the wood to swell and buckle. Fans were placed in the area to help the water dry off.
Mold can usually form on wood floors between a 48-72 hour period; then everything must be ripped up with only the slab remaining.
The floor was ripped up within two days and the slab was managed; new flooring was in place within four days. Michael Matherne, Director of Campus Recreation, described the renovation period. “We have filed an insurance claim, and we have been so happy that the repairs have been going by so quickly and the floors should be open September 1. To get the floor replaced, sanded, was only a thirty day process that we couldn’t be happier with that short timeline.”
The closure of the court affected free play but the recreation center personnel does not think it affected a large portion of students. The repairs took place in between the summer and fall semesters when student usage numbers are lower. Matherne explained, “Repairs occurred kind of between the time summer school let out and the fall begins so we could inconvenience the least amount of students cause at the end of the day the student recreation center puts students’ needs and wants in priority one.”
“The insurance company covered it all, and the recreation center paid a thousand dollar deductible,” said Matherne, regarding the cost of repairs.
In the future there are plans to place heavy duty sprinkler heads on the sprinklers, but these measures must first be approved by the fire marshal, leaving a time period for these plans to be determined.
The damage to the floors are mostly blamed on this being a freak accident that no one was prepared for with Fillmore stating, “We are definitely more prepared if it happens again.”
Matherne expressed his pleasure with the way the situation was handled.
“I’m very proud of the students’ and the staff’s response time,” Matherne said.