HARMONY — Roofing was a topic raised at Tuesday evening’s borough council meeting.

A residential rental building at 515 and 517 Main St. with historical importance is being renovated by the Zelienople-based Murray Agency.

The Weingartner House, built in 1810, has been repainted and wooden windows and siding have been installed.

However, the issue of slate versus asphalt shingle roofing has caused a stir between the agency and the Harmony Architectural Review Board.

“It’s far too expensive to put a new slate roof on,” said Tom Murray, owner of the Murray Agency. “This is an investment property that only produces about $6,000 to $7,000 a year.”

While Murray wants asphalt shingle roofing to replace the slate roof on the homes, the borough’s ordinance states that slate roofing must be used to preserve the home’s historic aesthetic.

The Weingartner House is in the borough’s historic district.

The review board initially voted 3-2 to recommend denial of Murray’s request in October for asphalt shingle roofing.

Murray and his son, Patrick, said the cost of shingle roofing would be around $20,000 while slate roofing would cost about $70,000.

While the review board can recommend approval or denial of architectural requests made to the borough, council has final say on requests.

The agency said the building is in need of repair before winter.

“The nails are rusted through,” Patrick Murray said. “I keep putting Band-Aids on it, but that’s just $1,000 here and $1,000 there I could be putting toward a new roof.”

They used the example of the borough’s municipal building having an asphalt shingle roof.

“Hardship is easier to understand with a family than for a company, which I think should not be a deciding factor,” Patrick Murray said. “A business does not receive special credits in a historical district.”

The review board met again Monday and tabled its recommendation, asking the Murrays for more information on bids to repair the roofs, according to board member Delsa White.

The Murrays said they were unaware of the meeting.

“It was retracted in this process,” White said. “We know we don’t have final say on this, but we feel like we did a very fair procedure by taking back the refusal.”

Councilman Dave Szakelyhidi said slate roofing would be cheaper in the long run.

“I think if that slate roof would last through four or five asphalt replacements, you would be ahead,” he said.

Mayor Cathy Rape questioned why the Murrays were “being forced” to use slate roofing, which was not the original type of roofing used for the Weingartner House.

“They put slate on because the original roof went bad,” Rape said. “It was cheap to do slate at that time. Now it’s very expensive unless you do it yourself.”

Council decided to continue the meeting at 7 p.m. Nov. 15 to vote on the issue. The review board also will meet before that date to discuss the matter.

“They’re beautiful properties,” Tom Murray said. “I really hope we can work with HARB on the situation.”

HARB President Brett Shank was unavailable for comment.