Progress stalls on Oakvale school

News

Discussion

August 17, 2012

Progress stalls on Oakvale school

By MATT CHRISTIAN Princeton Times The Zope Gazette Fri Aug 17, 2012, 05:04 AM EDT

PRINCETON — The construction of a new school in Oakvale is not proceeding as smoothly as the Mercer County Board of Education had hoped.

In a memorandum, Superintendent Deborah Akers said that a change order was needed to furnish and install the necessary items for telephone and cable to be connected to the school.

Mercer County Board of Education President Greg Prudich voiced his frustration when Akers informed the board that another change order was needed on the project.

“I’ve never been an architect or an engineer,” Prudich said. “I do know that you have to have power and telephone connected to the building.”

Akers tried to explain that the change order was necessary because some rewiring had to be done.

That didn’t seem to sit too well with Prudich. He said he couldn’t believe this issue wasn’t foreseen in the original plans.

“I have been informed that the notes were probably not as sufficient as they needed to be on this project,” Akers said.

Hearing this added to Prudich’s discontent. He directed Akers to go to the architect and the construction company and express the board’s “great displeasure” with the fact that some of these issues were presented as change orders and not found in the original plans.

In previous meetings, Akers had already informed the board that the water system that was supposed to provide the school with water would not be ready in time for the school year.

She explained that they had received assurances that the Oakvale Water Project would be ready for the new school to hook into. However, Akers later learned that it would not be ready for use until September or October.

Also, there have been at least two instances of people breaking into the construction site and stealing materials.

Akers then turned her attention to the costs of the change orders, saying that there were allowances in the money provided by the School Building Authority but the allowance was insufficient to cover the cost of the change orders.

Still, to keep the construction moving on the project which is expected to provide Oakvale with a new school beginning next fall, the board unanimously approved the change order.

Oakvale Principal Ernie Adkins and Clerk of the Works Tom Broyles informed Thursday that they were sure the issues wouldn’t delay the construction progress of the school.

Broyles said that he believed that the real reason the project was still on schedule was the great work of the contractors involved in the project- Swope Construction, Bluestone Electric, Parsons and Associates, and Empire Salvage.

— Contact Matt Christian at mchristian@ptonline.net.

Text Only

News

Search Results

Discussion

Progress stalls on Oakvale school

Site Map

Contact Us