Avery Trace Middle Gym Fully Painted

The Avery Trace Middle School gym has been fully repainted.

Putnam Schools Deputy Director Tim Martin said paint damage visible along all the gym’s walls that needed to be addressed. Martin said they painted the whole space including the dressing rooms and decorative sections with logos and the school’s name.

“As far as I know, that gym hadn’t been painted in many, many years,” Martin said. “So this was a complete paint job. I mean it was, we brought in scissor lifts and painted the ceilings and all of the, I mean everything. It’s a hundred percent.”

Martin said they are also adding all-new bleachers to the gym in the next couple months. He said depending on when the bleachers are delivered they may install them over fall break to minimize impact on the school’s operations.

“They’ve been ordered for several months,” Martin said. “Just like everything else, it seems to take forever to get anything here anymore. So as soon as they come in, then we’ll have to determine the installation.”

Martin said they expect the bleachers to arrive by the end of September at the latest. Martin said the painting project took the whole summer to complete and cost the district about $110,000.

“You could see there was same damage in the paint along several of the wall areas,” Martin said. “That issue was taken care of when we put a new roof on the gym, but the damage to the walls and the paint remained, so that was all scraped off and then covered back over. I mean, we want all of our schools to look nice for our kids.”