Work winding down on two school projects

Published 5:00 am Monday, October 21, 2002

Improvement projects at two of the county schools are movingright on schedule as students and faculty approach the mid-point ofthe first semester.

The old Bogue Chitto School Building was completely on theground Friday, while the West Lincoln Library project was awaitingfinal inspection.

“We’re looking at starting to move in the first of the week,”said Jason Case, West Lincoln principal, about the spaciouslibrary.

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The library was expected to be completed in November, anddespite a rainy August and September, construction crews were ableto finish ahead of schedule.

“They wanted in early, so we tried hard to get them in there,”said construction foreman Joe Good. “Everybody’s been good to workwith, and we didn’t have any problems so we were able to finishearly.”

Case said everyone has not only been pleased with the speedinessof the work, but also with how nice the library has turned out.

“I think it’s an excellent atmosphere to promote reading andlearning,” he said. “Everybody’s excited about it. They can’t waituntil it opens so they can use it.”

As librarian Janice Holmes prepares to box up books and movethem across campus to the new building, work crews at Bogue Chittoare looking to haul off pieces from the old school.

“They’re just steady tearing it down,” said Bogue ChittoPrincipal Bobby Allen. “They should be out of here by the end ofNovember, maybe even before then.”

Construction crews have been tearing away at the building sincemid-summer, carefully extracting pieces of salvageable materials.They have saved about 750,000 bricks and countless pieces of oldwood that the salvage company will sell to cover the costs of thedemolition.

Now all that remains of the old school that once housedelementary, special education and a few high school classes, aswell as the school’s auditorium, is a pile of rubble that will behauled off in the next month.

“It looks like they’re about 80 percent through,” saidAllen.

He complimented the workers and how well they have done inhelping keep the students safe and away from the site.

“It’s been going real smooth. They’ve done a good job of keepingit all away from the kids,” said Allen.

Most of the work involving heavy machinery has been done afterschool hours. During school hours, the more tedious work is takencare of behind an orange plastic barrier.

Allen believes the process will continue to run smooth,especially since all the tall pieces of the building have been torndown.