ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, September 13, 1996 TAG: 9609130160
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
Finally, Cave Spring Junior High School students will have cool classrooms.
The long wait will be over by this time next year for students and parents who thought the school would never get air conditioning.
More than five years after the project was proposed, the Roanoke County School Board awarded a $1.6 million contract Thursday night for air conditioning, an upgraded electrical system, new windows and other improvements.
The contractor, Nielsen Construction Co. of Harrisonburg, will begin work in about a month and expects to finish in 280 days.
Homer Duff, director of facilities and operations, said the contractor has promised to finish the project by the opening of school next year.
Cave Spring Junior is one of the last schools in the county to get air conditioning. Over the years, the project has become entangled with controversies over funding and bond issues that have caused repeated delays.
Construction can proceed during the school year because mobile classrooms will be used to house students.
As the contractor completes the work in some sections , students can be moved back and other areas can be vacated.
Several board members are concerned that the project might not be finished by the next school year when the lease on the mobile classrooms expires. But Duff said the contractor believes it can be completed by then.
Nielsen Construction was the contractor for the Stonewall Jackson Middle School renovation project in Roanoke.
County school officials considered shifting one grade from Cave Spring Junior to Hidden Valley Junior High, which would have freed up space for the construction work.
Both schools house children in grades six through nine, and their attendance lines adjoin. Cave Spring Junior was built to hold 785, but it had 935 this past year. Hidden Valley Junior can accommodate 1,020 students, but it had 825 this past year.
On another matter, the board decided to ask the Board of Supervisors to approve a proposed mission and responsibilities statement of a 22-member advisory committee set up after the failed school bond referendum this past spring.
Some supervisors complained recently that they were uncertain about what the committee was going to do.
School board members said earlier the committee would review the building needs at all schools and rank them in priority.
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