The Putnam County School Board expressed more concerns Thursday night about the progress of converting the old Park View school into the Early Learning Academy.
The board questioned the contractor about whether full crews are working on the project, as they have only seen a few workers on site. ESG Representative John Waddell said there have been full crews but admitted that the crews are smaller than usual.
“We’ve been somewhat limited to how much we can do because of some of the inspections that we’ve had to kind of wait on along the ways, you know, like the plumbing rough-in inspections, and some of the other things,” Waddell said. “As those fall into place, it should allow us to pick up some speed.”
School Board Chairman Lynn McHenry said the project schedule that ESG provided has an aggressive timeline for completion. Waddell said at this time, he does not see a reason why ESG could not meet the deadline.
“Until I see a reason, I mean, I will let you know if I see something,” Waddell said. “You will know, but right now we are gonna have to push to make it, but that’s what you do.”
Putnam County Schools Facilities and Construction Supervisor John Magura said ESG is behind and ahead on different aspects of the project. The school board approved a payment of an estimated $472,100 to ESG for the project.
“I do believe, honestly, that we will start seeing more people on the job site because more trades are gonna be needed, and they have been held up somewhat to get these inspections, but now they have these inspections,” Magura said. “I expect, every week, I am gonna be asking them about their schedule and making sure that they are there, and if they are not, how do we get to where we are supposed to be?”
Waddell said progress has still picked up over the past four weeks despite the winter weather.
“Most of the plumbing has been installed,” Waddell said. “We passed our plumbing rough-in inspection, so now we can apply the second side to the wallboard, so that’s a good thing. One side of the wallboard is now installed in all but five of the restrooms in the building. The cleanout of the kitchen floor drain is scheduled for Feb. 16.”
