LINCOLN -- Design plans to improve drainage on the Lincoln High School campus are almost finalized and ready to go to bid, according to Greg Ferus, senior project manager with Milestone Construction Co., in Springdale.
Lincoln School Board members have met in several work sessions to discuss the drainage improvement project and also to talk about a fieldhouse at the football stadium.
The project will correct drainage problems that have been ongoing since the new high school opened in 2012.
Mary Ann Spears, school superintendent, said the school campus has a lot of erosion damage because of drainage problems and the district has tried to "bandaid" the problem. It's time the district addressed the issues, Spears said.
The drainage improvement project includes regrading the existing drainage ditches, adding concrete culverts, adding curb and gutter with curb cuts to the north parking lot beside the football field and installing a downspout drainage system on the courtyard area behind the high school.
Ferus said the the school has multiple downspouts that all run into the courtyard. The downspout drainage system will run water from these downspouts into piping and then into large pipes to direct the water away from the area.
The improvements on campus will drain stormwater to the detention pond on the northwest corner of the campus, Ferus said.
Once design plans are finalized and approved by school board members, Milestone will advertise for bids. Ferus said the project will be advertised as bid packages and it's possible that one company will bid on all packages or Milestone may decide to go with separate companies for the different scopes of work.
"Whichever is most economically feasible for the district," Ferus added.
At one work session, board member Dax Moreton asked Ferus if the project would "cure all our water issues?"
"I hope. That's the plan," Ferus responded.
Board members also asked Ferus if he could give an estimated cost for the project but he firmly declined.
"No estimated guess," Ferus said. "I try not to shoot one from the hip."
Lincoln will use money from its building fund to pay for the project. Spears said the fund has a balance of about $1.1 million. She told school board members she would like to keep a balance in the account of $300,000-$400,000 as a cushion.
The board also has been discussing a project to build out the football fieldhouse. Now, the building is just a shell and football players use facilities across campus.
Deon Birkes, high school assistant principal and athletic director, said the current plan is to add two locker rooms, a weight room, training room, offices and restrooms to the building.
During a work session last month, the board decided to ask Milestone to draw up design plans for the fieldhouse so the school will be prepared to move forward with the project. The timing for this work will depend on the cost of the drainage improvement project.
"I want to be thinking ahead and not doing it behind," Moreton said. "That's what we're doing with the drainage project. We're doing it behind."
Spears said she hopes the drainage project will be completed before the end of the 2016-17 fiscal year. Depending on costs, then the school board could go ahead with the finishing out the fieldhouse as part of the budget for the next fiscal year.
General News on 12/14/2016