Morgan County Schools construction projects making progress
By Jean Cole
For the Enquirer
Morgan County Schools has several ongoing construction projects in the works, the largest of which – a new Priceville Junior High School – is progressing on schedule, according to officials. Robbie Elliott, director of transportation and new construction for Morgan County Schools, said last week that work is continuing on five major projects: Priceville Junior High School Union Hill School classroom addition Priceville High School softball/baseball facilities Danville High School football facilities upgrades Lacey’s Spring School entrance Elliott said work on the new $33 million Priceville Junior High on North Bethel Road is going well.
“We are averaging 50 workers a day out there even when it’s raining,” he told the Morgan County Schools board.
The first-floor wing and downstairs firstfloor hallway just passed inspection. At the end of this month, the overhead inspection of the administration building with the library, the cafeteria, the agriculture building and the second floor should be complete. They are flooring classrooms right now, with about 8% of the classrooms floored. Workers are going to start laying wood in the gymnasium this week, Elliott said.
For analysis purposes, he divided the work into six buildings. The administration building fronts North Bethel Road and it has the library and the connecting hallways in it. Looking west from Bethel, behind the admin building and to the left is the cafeteria with both pitched and flat roofs. Behind it is the agricultural building. Beside it is a two-story classroom wing. Beside it is the one-story classroom wing and beside that is the gymnasium.
“We already have the circulation desk in place in the library,” Elliott said. “We are working on the ceilings and awaiting overhead inspections. We’re going to tile the kitchen area of the cafeteria next week. There is also a downstairs storm shelter crews are working on. In the science lab, in the upstairs hallway area, they have the flooring down, cabinets in and desks in and it is ready for overhead inspection.” The first-story wing of classrooms are ready and the doors are hung. The furniture is in, but the floors still need tiles.
“They are going to put all of the tiles in the school in at the same time when everything has finished its overhead inspection,” Elliot said.
Crews are finishing up the inside of the ag building.
Overall, he said, work on Priceville Junior High is “looking good.”
Union Hill additions Union Hill School, a kindergarten through eighth grade facility located at 2221 Union Hill Road, Somerville, is getting some major upgrades.
Elliott said Phase 2 has begun. Construction crews tore down the old fourth and fifth grade hall and they are going to remodel the restrooms and tie in the new building to the existing building. They are also remodeling the auditorium bathrooms; plumbing work started on that last week.
He said the contractor is scheduled to finish May 30. He noted that they were supposed to be done with the project Aug. 26. “They haven’t hit a deadline yet so I don’t see them hitting May 30, but we would love for them to,” Elliott said. “We’re having weekly meetings now to help prod them along.”
He said the good news is “we are under budget on this project by about $300,000.”
Priceville High
Work on the $6.6 million Priceville High softball and baseball facilities is scheduled to be completed by July. Phase 1 — which included the dugouts, which are done — will be finished May 1. In Phase 2, the turf company will come in and do the rest of it. He said the contractors just need some dry weather.
Danville High football Boyette Construction should be done by Aug. 1 with the $1.8 million in upgrades to the football facilities at Danville High School, located at 9235 Danville Road.
Elliott said Boyette is working under a very “condensed time frame” but they started early so hopefully will finish by Aug. 1. They have torn down the old ticket booth and concession stands at the Danville High football field. They will replace it with new concession stands, bathrooms, press box and a set of bleachers. Those bleachers are going to be wheelchair accessible, Elliott said. They will also switch the visitors and home side bleachers.
Lacey’s Spring project The Lacey’s Spring School front window project has been completed at the pre-kindergarten through eighth grade school at 48 School Road, Lacey’s Spring.
“If you’ve ever been to Lacey’s Spring there you are never real sure where the entrance is so we added an entrance to it,” said Morgan County Schools Superintendent Tracie Turrentine.
The improvement shows a conspicuous entryway with a shingled A-frame roof and the name of the school just under the roof. The entrance is much more visible now. Construction crews also replaced some windows along the front of the building to improve the appearance.
“It looks good, and the community has been very appreciative of it,” Turrentine said.
