Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 15, 1993 TAG: 9304150442
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: W11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURA WILLIAMSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
SCHOOL BOARD REVIEWS NEW SOUTH SALEM PLANS
When South Salem Elementary School opens its doors this fall, it won't be opening the doors to a new wing as hoped.Four first-grade classrooms, part of an anticipated 6,000-square-foot addition, likely won't be completed until after Thanksgiving or the start of the second term, Superintendent Wayne Tripp said Tuesday.
That's because the Salem School Board, concerned with the safety of the initial designs and some other issues, scrapped those plans and asked consulting engineer Lawrence Perry to redo them.
Perry and architect Richard M. Hughes presented to the board Tuesday new plans that are similar to the old plans but relocate the addition to the front of the building.
The new design removes plans for a courtyard and adds about 600 square feet of storage and work space for teachers. It also adds to the price tag by about 10 percent, Perry said. He estimates the cost will fall between $380,000 and $420,000 instead of somewhere slightly more than $360,000.
Delays began last month when board members reviewed the first set of plans, which called for a courtyard inside a fenced-in area. Some worried the open space would lure children onto school grounds after hours. The school already has problems with children climbing onto its roof.
They also were concerned about making the addition more aesthetically pleasing and moving some sewer lines.
Board members first asked for a redesign that would have a roof over the courtyard, then for other revisions.
The result: what Perry and Hughes call a "flip-flop" of the original plans. The redesign flips the addition from the back of the building into the space between the gymnasium and the bus circle.
Tripp said he would rather delay the project by a few months than build something that would make school administrators unhappy "for 20 to 30 years."
The board delayed calling for bids on the project until a special meeting May 3 when it will award contracts for an addition at West Salem Elementary School and boiler replacements at G.W. Carver Elementary School. The board will determine at that meeting how much money remains for the South Salem project.