“You’re not seeing much construction going on right now as we’re just getting bids in on the early site work package that you saw a little bit more developed over at Northeastern,” Kronour said in the video.
Kronour added that the Kenton Ridge site is just a few weeks behind the Northeastern site.
“This project runs just a little bit behind where the Northeastern project is,” he said. “You will see a lot of work happening here in the end of October into early November. You’ll see this row of trees will disappear as the new building pad will start to take shape over in the area.”
Shook Construction Manager Jeff Schlarman joined Krounour in the video.
“We’re putting in current water/fire combination line, stone’s already on the building pad, and our next phase from here would be start footing the foundation,” said Schlarman.
Schlarman said the crew is doing “really well” and only had one hiccup so far.
“Mother nature’s been pretty nice. The rain has been distant, so there’s been a couple days we’ve been slowed down by rain but that’s been our only hiccup so far,” he said.
Kronour said the construction “looks like it’s coming along great.”
Northeastern will hold their postponed groundbreaking ceremonies on Friday, Oct. 16, at 11 a.m. at the Northeastern site and at 1 p.m. at the Kenton Ridge site.
“Due to COVID-19 restrictions, these events cannot be attended by the community, but the ceremony will be live streamed on Facebook and posted on our YouTube page and website,” Kronour said.
One of the new buildings will be located on the northeastern side of the district and the other on the Kenton Ridge side. The total cost of the schools will be around $120 million, some of which will be funded by the state.
A groundbreaking ceremony for both schools was scheduled for May, but was postponed to later this month after Gov. Mike DeWine closed schools for the year in March as part of efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus .
Voters approved a 37-year, $79 million bond issue for two new PreK-12 facilities in May 2018. In addition to the bond, the state will contribute 40%, or $40 million, to the project through the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission, bringing the total cost of the two schools to nearly $120 million.
The Northeastern site is anticipated to open in the fall of 2022 and the Kenton Ridge site is anticipated to open in 2023, but will have a firmer open date as more progress is made.
Continuing coverage
The Springfield News-Sun has provided continued coverage of school building construction projects, tracking monthly developments, including examining the state of the current buildings, attending community forums and digging into what the new building and renovations might look like.
About the Author
