DATE: Tuesday, September 2, 1997            TAG: 9709020074

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   72 lines

CONSTRUCTION DELAYS STILL PLAGUE HICKORY HIGH

One year after opening, Hickory High School still hasn't had a ribbon-cutting.

And come today, when 1,800 students will fill the hallways of Chesapeake's newest high school, it still won't be officially open after 13 months of delayed construction.

Hickory has never been issued a certificate of occupancy, an inspection document needed to officially occupy any building in the city. Instead, the school had been using a temporary certificate of occupancy. That expired in June, and the school district applied for a new temporary certificate Friday, said district spokesman Thomas Cupitt.

When Hickory High School opened last year, it was 85 percent complete. Students ate box lunches as work continued on the cafeteria.

Today, the school building itself is finished, according to Principal Linda J. Byrd. The school's gymnasium, art rooms, auditorium, music rooms, health classrooms and catering labs, all incomplete at this time last year, are finished.

The main problem this year is the athletic fields.

As a result, the girls field hockey team will play and practice at rival Great Bridge High School. The football team is being bused to practice at the Charlott-Mott Youth Complex, a privately owned baseball complex nearby on Eason Road. Football games are played at the school's stadium, which is complete.

Student life will be affected only by the field delays, Byrd said.

The school district is withholding funds from the contractor at a cost of about $2,500 per day, Cupitt said. The savings thus far add up to a rough total of $990,000, or about 3 percent of the delayed construction's $34 million price tag.

``I think everyone agrees there was some weather-related things,'' Cupitt said. ``But the total thing, I don't know. I think that needs to be discussed.''

School officials last year publicly criticized the project's contractors, A.D. Whittaker Construction of Chesapeake, for missed deadlines and a resulting lack of trust.

Officials from A.D. Whittaker did not return phone calls on Friday. The company's listed phone number goes directly to the Hickory High School construction site.

In 1995, the school required an additional $3.4 million from the city before it could open. Before that, the council was asked for another $5.4 million to increase the school's capacity from 1,500 students to 2,000. The original price was $25.2 million.

It is anticipated that 1,800 students will enter the school today, up from 1,500 students last year, said Byrd.

The increase is due to the school's receiving its first full senior class. Last year, seniors had the option of staying in their old schools or transferring to Hickory.

News of Hickory High School's construction delays comes at a time when the City Council has begun talking of combining construction services for the city and the school district, a proposition the district has resisted.

``Given our limited resources and the need to keep our indebtedness at a safe level, there needs to be some coordination between the city and the schools in contracting and overseeing construction projects,'' said Mayor William E. Ward. ``I think that it's necessary for the schools and the city to work closer in the coordination and monitoring of capital projects.''

The city has posted a job opening for a director of development projects, ``an experienced manager to oversee the construction of major public buildings, roads and complex development projects.'' The salary range is from $58,000 to $89,000. Neither the city nor the school district has such a position now.

``The idea of a singular projects manager has surfaced in the past,'' said Ward, ``but no agreement in the past has been reached. However, the city's request for a director of development projects may be the opportune time for the schools and city to forge this coordinated effort.'' KEYWORDS: HICKORY HIGH SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION CHESAPEAKE SCHOOLS

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