News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The contractor in charge of the new Park View School project told the Putnam County School Board Thursday night there is no danger of the school not being ready for the fall.
American Constructors Vice President Joe Braden said furniture is slated to be delivered and moved in on June 22. He said the elementary wing, administration wing, and flooring throughout are all complete. Braden said the ceiling is installed and nearly all interior lights are in.
“The biggest push right now is on the exterior of the building,” Braden said. “We’ve had a couple of things that are kind of become a challenge, but we’re good. We’re running sidewalk on the exterior of the building. We’ll be done with sidewalk by the end of this month, and then June 1, we’ll start paving.”
He said the gym is essentially complete and workers are moving through the music wing. He said May 8, he will go through the final punch list for the interior and the final cleaning will begin on May 15.
“We would like to have had it done earlier,” Braden said. “A combination of weather and some material days got us on the outside.”
He said by mid-June, the interior will look like a finished school, providing enough time for teachers to get inside and start preparing for the school year. He said fortunately, there is not a significant amount of landscaping required for the outside of the building and the landscaping that is necessary will begin in the next several weeks. Upland Design Group Architect Kim Chamberlin said he is pleased with the progress.
“I wish he’d had a little more of the exterior on the building, but we’ve still had some delivery problems with materials,” Chamberlin said. “It’s still not behind us. There’s still so much work out there and we see some of it getting backed up. At this point, I feel good with what Joe’s told you.”
Braden said the lobby will be the last portion of the interior finished because there is so much traffic in that area of the building during construction.
School Board members asked Braden to attend the meeting after a sudden change last month to the completion schedule. Official expected to be moving in much earlier based on all reports this year. Contractor mentions of weather delays were met with skepticism from school board members.
Meantime, the Upperman High School renovation project is complete. Chamberlin said radio test work is still a pending issue, but the Fire Marshall has issued temporary certificates of occupancy until the tests can be completed by the local fire departments. He said some closeout documents are set to be turned over soon and the project will officially conclude.
Facilities Supervisor John Magura said he intends to add some ADA-accessible sidewalks and a pair of handicap parking spaces in the back of the building. He said those projects can be completed within the money originally budgeted for the project.
