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Progress is being made on both of the major construction projects Creston Community School District has started this summer, according to CCSD Superintendent Steve McDermott.
At the elementary/middle school building, work on the new parking lot has gone well, with concrete ready to be poured.
McDermott reported to the CCSD Board of Directors during Monday’s regular meeting that concrete is being formed to start pouring north of the bus barn wash bay.
“From there, we’ll start north and start working on the additional concrete as we go on,” McDermott said. “That’s moving forward really well.”
Dry weather recently has been conducive to completing work on the football stadium project.
According to McDermott, the drainage system that runs across the football field and down the sides of the field has been installed.
Construction crews are currently working on the two skirts of the field, or “D-zones,” as McDermott calls them. Those areas – the areas just beyond the end zones at each end of the field – will eventually be covered with track surfacing. The north end will include two long jump runways and pits and the south end will hold the high jump.
“Then, of course, you have to do your wiring underneath that,” McDermott said. “Jeff (Bevins) and I have been working with Gary (Briley) to make sure our wiring is OK for the timing system for track and field and also for the play clocks on each end.”
Anchors for the goal posts will be put into place soon.
“I was told this morning by the crew a lot more will happen even this week. You’ll begin to see by the end of the week some of the layer of rock that will come in,” McDermott said. “Then, it won’t be long until we have turf delivered.”
Creston/Orient-Macksburg’s first football scrimmage is scheduled for Friday, Aug. 17, and McDermott said he still anticipates having the field completed and ready for use by then.
In addition, the visitor side bleachers have been completed. The new bleachers provide more capacity and are higher off the ground, allowing for a better line of sight to the playing field. They also include an ADA-compliant ramp for wheelchairs, and the press box has been lifted from its previous position.
“That general area out there, I’d love to tell you we’ll have all the fencing and the new ticket-taking station and all the gates ready to go for fall,” McDermott said. “We won’t have. The field has to happen first. We’ll just keep phasing in some things. Hopefully by spring, we’ll have even more of that done for the spring season, and then we should have most all of that completed for next fall.”
Other projects
McDermott also reported to the board that new curtains have been installed in the auditorium as part of an overhaul of the facility.
“There’s still a header we need to get yet. It’s kind of exciting to see nice, new curtains in there,” McDermott said. “They make you feel worse about the old ones we had in there. They were shot. Those previous curtains don’t owe us anything, put it that way.”
Construction crews are working to bore a direct fiber line from the high school building to the ECC building, which will be an improvement for the district’s tech system.
Work is being done in the ECC gymnasium to remove or repair several fixtures in the gym.
“There’s a spot where a water fountain was removed and there’s still a couple of pipes sticking out of the wall,” McDermott said. “That needs cleaned up. Just those kinds of things.”
McDermott also reported that Briley is working on the heating and cooling units in all three district buildings, with the plan to have them in working condition for the start of school in the fall.