Turner renovation project suffers slight setback

By Gary Scott on September 2, 2016 at 9:42am

Renovations at Turner Junior High have hit a bit of a snag.

Superintendent Steve Ptacek says a problem has emerged with the framework inside the new gymnasium and explains how the district is working to resolve the issue.

“The trusses that were developed to support the gym walls and the walls themselves were designed slightly differently. So the company is having to take the trusses back and put six-inch extensions on the trusses. Everything else on the gym is on hold. Right now the walls are being supported by the footing braces. From the inside, all those walls are supported by braces that then come down into the ground, well they can’t work on any of the lower sections of the gym until those footings are removed, which means the trusses have to be installed to support the walls,” says Ptacek.

Ptacek says there’s a chance the school’s athletic teams will have to use a different facility for the upcoming sports season.

“The gym now is behind schedule and it might be up to a month of delay, which, that does have us have to address the fact that we currently don’t have locker rooms for games at Turner. So we might have to look to either The Bowl or other facilities for our games, not for practices, but for games as we enter into our volleyball and basketball seasons,” Ptacek says.

While crews work on repairing the gym, Ptacek says other parts of the building are actually ahead of schedule, and that noticeable improvements could be coming within the next month.

“The east side of the building and the whole sixth grade expansion are actually ahead of schedule. They said we might start seeing some actual rock, exterior wall on the south end of the school in the next week and a half, two weeks, so that aspect is actually ahead of schedule,” Ptacek explains.

Classes at Turner started on August 22nd.