District close to finishing slate of projects

You are currently viewing District close to finishing slate of projects

By Krystle S. Morey

The school is on the cusp of finishing up three major capital projects it began earlier this summer – hopefully before school starts Sept. 6.

Parking lots

“The parking lots are the biggie,” said Superintendent Mark Bessen. “That’s where the buses, the cars and the parents and everybody has to come.”

Reconstruction of parking lots at the Granville High School, Granville Elementary School, and Mary J. Tanner School is underway.

The lots at each of the schools had been dug up, grated and leveled Tuesday.

At GES, the paving was completed this week.

At the Jr./Sr. High School, the main lot was paved this week. It was also awaiting paint Tuesday. The back staff lot was still unfinished, but should be finished by the first day of school, Bessen said.

In Middle Granville, at MJT, crews were busy working Tuesday on leveling the roadway. Paving was scheduled to be done this week.

Work began on parking lots last month. Crews even worked on Saturday, which Bessen said put the school “ahead of the curve” on the project.

Each of the lots is awaiting paint for parking spaces and traffic markers, and landscaping. Finishing touches that Bessen said, “are not going to infringe upon opening school.”

Water drains

One day during the project, Bessen attempted to park in the small lot near the district office and he noticed a hole where blacktop and bricks were falling in.

This led to the discovery that six of the water drains at the schools were failing. Crews were able to recap four of them. The two remaining drains needed to be replaced.

Bessen said the repairs are “not a major job,” but they “may take a couple of parking spots out of play for a little while.”

Chimney repair

At GES, the chimney repair project is coming along. Crews are working to fix parts of the brick and mortar that were worn.

“Whether that’s done before school starts or not is no big deal, because it’s not in the way of education,” Bessen said.

Baseball field

When crews were adding fencing behind home plate at the GHS baseball field, located behind Price Chopper, they discovered that the fencing wasn’t set under the ground, which is required.

“…so you don’t have a catcher reaching underneath and catching their hands on the wire,” Bessen said. “…and so that there are no balls getting away.”

They also discovered that one of the net poles was not lined up, which will be corrected using a jackhammer and reset.

The baseball field upgrades should be complete by the start of school, Bessen said.