KC Board Hear Liberty-Curtin Update, Other Items
By Christopher Miller
BALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP – The Keystone Central School Board met Thursday evening for their monthly Work Session meeting.
A representative of Crabtree, Rohrbaugh & Associates, the architectural firm hired to design and build the new Liberty-Curtin Elementary School, appeared in person Thursday night to speak about the build progress.
“We are now 92% of the way through the project and 90% complete cost-wise,” he said. “The exterior is 98% complete, we are just waiting on miscellaneous electrical equipment such as security cameras and outdoor lights to be installed. All teacher supplies from the existing building have been successfully moved and staged outside of each classroom. The demolition of the old building will begin on Monday and we will have the whole summer to bring the new building completely online.”
The district has also taken the opportunity to save $27,000 to complete the final cleaning themselves.
The project is currently coming in “substantially under budget” hovering at close to half a million dollars in savings, the representative said.
Superintendent Dr. Frank Redmon gave a brief superintendents report, mentioning that the upcoming Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA) conference will be happening very soon at Kalahari Resort in the Poconos, urging that interested board members should book their rooms fast as they tend to fill up rather quickly.
“We are closing off for the school year but this is really the time of the year that things begin to ramp up at the central office,” Redmon said. “Starting Monday, we will begin working with professional development leaders and administrators which will continue throughout the summer. Demolition at the old Liberty-Curtin building will begin on Monday. The road to the school will be closed off during this time. We ask that people interested in watching the demolition to please stay off of the site and general area. You may park at the Blanchard Church of Christ and observe from that safe location. I also want to give a huge shout out and thank you to all of our “staffulty” for another school year completed.”
During committee reports, Facilities Committee chairperson Jeff Johnston brought up a recent meeting with representatives from Mill Hall Borough to discuss the topic of the “sewer problem.”
“They brought to our attention that they inspected the grease traps and they are not functioning properly,” he said. “They were concerned and brought pictures of the items that got clogged up in the sewer and we decided that they would have the traps completely cleaned out and then completely flush out the sewer line, and see how things go in the fall. Mr. Hoy has some quotes and a total cost for the hand dryers if we need to revisit that. We will have a dollar figure for you at that point. A student and her father at Bucktail have come forward offering to build a pavilion near the tennis court. Her father is a contractor and he is willing to provide labor, materials, and design. We decided to wait and see what is involved with this as far as liability, and as soon as they have designs for us to see we will make a decision to move forward or not.”
An executive session was held from 6:01 p.m. to 6:18 p.m. to discuss legal and personnel matters.
Board members Tom Cannon and Butch Knauff were absent from Thursday’s meeting.
