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TOP NEWS of 2000 - New Gym Set At PHS

BY JOHN MILLER
Published Wednesday, January 3, 2001 in the Nevada County Picayune

By the start of the 2001 basketball season, Prescott's Curley Wolves and Wolverettes will have a new home.

A new gym being constructed was one of the top stories for 2000.

In November 1999, Prescott voters passed a millage increase to build a new gym, but also to renovate the district's three school buildings.

Superintendent Ron Wright and the Prescott School Board agreed the renovations should come first, with the gym being the last thing on the list.

The renovation work included lowering the ceilings in classrooms at Prescott Elementary, roofing work at McRae Middle School, an almost complete overhaul of the MMS gym, roofing work at Prescott High School, then the gym.

Renovating the gym at MMS was made the top priority in late January when a student was injured by a falling light fixture.

When work began on the gym, though, more problems were discovered.

Termite damage was found and had to be corrected before anything else could be done. The district got lucky and didn't have to replace the gym floor.

At the time, the board wasn't sure it would be feasible to do all the renovation work planned and considered making the gym an activity center for students.

Upon further investigation, the termite damage wasn't as severe as first thought, and the full renovation was started.

In the meantime, the board was working with the French Architect firm of Hot Springs on plans for the PHS gym.

The plans called for 1,536 seats, which would be enough to allow Prescott to bid competitively for regional basketball tournament games.

David French and Rico Harris agreed, though, the gym would definitely be a showplace, though some of the "bells and whistles" may have to be left off for financial reasons.

In March, the board decided to hire a construction manager for the project, with Wade Abernathy selected.

Wright, in discussing the situation at the board meeting, likened it to a marriage, beginning by telling the panel the district needed to know as much as possible about the prospective bridegroom before such a wedding could take place.

This information was gathered by calling other superintendents Abernathy has worked with. Their references were good, and the groom advanced another step closer to the wedding.

Jeff Haynes, a member of the board, asked if the district could get a divorce if the marriage failed, without losing any of its assets.

This line of discussion continued with Wright saying the district could require the groom to sign a prenuptial agreement drawn up by the district's attorney.

But, when all was said and done, the marriage was consummated with Abernathy hired as construction manager.

Then came the fun of getting the bids for the project, with problems arising right off the bat.

Several portions of the project had no bidders at all, with other bids being higher than anticipated.

French told the board this wasn't unusual and promised to work to get more bidders, even if the entire project had to be rebid.

Harris said everyone wanted local bidders to participate, and wasn't sure why they didn't.

In effect, the project was rebid, with more contractors getting involved.

As the bids were done in parcels, each done as needed for the section of work to be completed, the process wasn't finished by the end of the year.

However, with the piers being drilled for more stability, and the district getting good news as slate was hit 20 feet down, the project slowly started becoming a reality.

Alliance Builders of Oklahoma City, Okla., had the low bid on the building portion of the project at $171,549, making it the lowest of the three submitted.

The year ended with dirtwork on the project mostly finished, the piers drilled, and good weather needed to continue construction.


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