Construction to remodel the Putnam County Early Learning Center continues, but delays have put the December completion date in question.
Project Manager John Waddle said project approval from the Fire Marshall took longer than expected. Waddle said he has been working with other contractors to speed up the process, but he said a lot needs to be done to finish the project on time.
“I will say, the sooner we can get going on the changes and the revised plans, where we had to relocate some of the restrooms to do some of the other stuff,” Waddle said. “The sooner we can get started on that, the better chance we have. Right now, every day we lose is a day we lose.”
Waddle said the project has now moved entirely inside so weather should not be a factor in the timeline. Waddle said there is some electrical work to be done, but the biggest thing is getting walls constructed and satisfying the Fire Marshall’s requirements.
The work to meet those requirements includes exterior doors, exit lighting, and fire alarms for the building. Waddle said there were originally no plans to make changes to the current alarm panel, but the Fire Marshall requested extra inputs.
“If somebody opens the door, you know, you’ll want a notification,” Waddle said. “And he wanted some horns in the courtyard, the outdoor courtyard area, which you currently didn’t have. So, if an alarm goes off inside the building, theoretically you wouldn’t know there was an alarm. So he had us add some alarms.”
Waddle said the devices themselves are not that expensive, but there needs to be enough capacity on the alarm panel to house them all. He said the current panel has some capacity, but not enough to add every new input.
Waddle said crews have begun demolition of old floor tiles in the front half of the building. As of Thursday, five classrooms have already had their tile removed.
“Now there’ll be a break between the demo and the installation of the new tile, obviously, because we have a lot of work still inside those rooms, and painting and things,” Waddle said. “But at least we’ll have the old floor tile up.”
Waddle said metal panels have been installed on the building’s exterior to remove the windows in places where bathrooms have since been installed. Waddle said a decision will be made next week on the placement of cubbies and lockers in the classrooms.
