Putnam County School Officials questioned the completion timeline for the new Early Learning Center renovations during a school board meeting on Thursday.
ESG Representative John Waddell told the board that the project is still on track. Putnam County Schools Facilities and Construction Supervisor John Magura said he is not fully satisfied with the progress ESG has made so far.
“I would like to see them move a little quicker, to be honest with you,” Magura said. “And I think it is, I think we should ask for a schedule between here and the end of the year, so we can have an idea or a barometer of where we are at and where we are supposed to be in the next three months if that is all they got.”
Waddell said he has no problem providing a project schedule moving forward. Deputy Director of Schools Tim Martin said he hopes that, since the holidays have passed, progress will pick up.
“One of the things that they have been telling us for a little while is that they have been waiting for doors, and he said tonight that the doors and the frames and things were expected to be here in the next few days, so hopefully that will come to fruition,” Martin said.
Though the project fell behind several months ago, Waddell said the project has made significant progress over the last month.
“We completed framing on all but one of the bathrooms, and that one may wrap up tomorrow, and then as soon as we get inspection on the framing, we can start hanging sheetrock on those,” Waddell said. “We began pressure testing [waterlines] this week, so if you go into the building, you see a lot of water on the floor in a lot of places.”
Waddell said painting has also been completed in the 1983 section, cafeteria, gym, hallways, and the library.
In other business, the board approved paying a $5,000 option to the City of Cookeville for an estimated 92 acres of land off Highway 111 known as the Trinity Property. The payment is for year four of the five-year option for a potential new high school facility off Old Sparta Road. If Putnam County decided to purchase the property, it would cost an estimated $2.8 million.
A temporary construction and access easement was approved for the Town of Monterey to construct a sidewalk alongside Crossville Street.
The board approved a payment of $578,835 to Lakeland Electric for the Cookeville High School Auditorium Lighting project.