Good afternoon! I hope you had a nice weekend! There are a couple of meetings this week and I attended the school assessment meeting last evening and I’ll tell you what happened there.
First, the Alcona County Republicans meet this evening at 7:00pm at the Chosen Ranch. Tomorrow, Tuesday is the ACCOA board meeting at 10:00am in the senior center in Lincoln.
Wednesday, instead of a Tavern meeting, I would like to invite everyone to play Cornhole at the senior center at 2:30pm. There is no county commissioner meeting this week so won’t have a Tavern meeting until Wednesday, the 5th of May. After Cornhole, we can have a meal at the senior center at 4:00pm. If you are going to stay for a meal, make sure to call before 10am on Wednesday to reserve your meal. If you have a set of Cornhole boards, please bring them. Bob and I have a set and I think Kathy and Mark Chiasson will bring theirs also. Hope to see you there! 🙂
Last night there were a few of us that met to hear what Kingscott found in their walk-through of the school buildings and what they see are things that need to be replaced. Doug Cheek, Lauren Dietrich, Don Sharboneau, Alex Cole and I were the audience. There were two guys from Kingscott and one from Clark Construction. They gave their presentation and we received handouts of their findings and maps of each building showing where they thought the changes could be made. Then we were asked to make a group, talk about their findings and then prioritize what we thought were the most important things to do. There was mention of a capital bond to pay for all these upgrades. The plan is to meet with other school groups and get their input and then put it all together.
Don brought up that he thought it would be difficult for us to have much of a say because we aren’t in the buildings all the time and that we couldn’t know what really needed to be done and what was just on a wish list. Oh, I forgot, Dan O’Connor was there so he sat with us and told us what he thought were the most important things to tackle first, if he had his choice. Dan felt the sinking fund could handle the kitchen renovations but the bond would pay for the things we were looking at in our packet.
Things on the list were categorized into Architecture and Interior, MEP (mechanical, electrical and plumbing), School Safety, Site and Circulation and Educational Delivery- in that order. The recommendations were by building and included replacement of doors and windows, barrier-free issues, ceiling tiles secure vestibules, remodeling rooms to subdivide into individual offices, replacement of cafeteria tables, update and replace student and teacher furniture, storage cabinets, adding roller shades media center furniture, replacing flooring, replacing parking lots, adding storm drainage, regrade ball fields, exterior LED lighting, interior lighting, emergency generator and alarm systems, replacing lockers, replace some plumbing fixtures, remodeling of the science lab and wood shop, replacing horizontal unit ventilators, upgrade weight room equipment, replace mechanical equipment, new kitchen stove hoods, replace sanitary sewer line, repair freezer and update doors, update electrical panels, replace furnaces and water heaters in the early childhood building, and replace the exhaust system and furnace in the bus garage…..I think that covers most of it. There was a lot!
Dan said the last bond was supposed to cover fencing around the bus lot, paving the bus entry and a canopy for the buses but there was no money to do it. So those things could be added to this list. So we gave our opinions on some of these things. Don asked why we would take out the tables in the cafeteria that fold up into the wall and replace them with individual tables and chairs. The tables that fold up give a lot more room for another purpose than to add individual tables and chairs. Dan said the table seats are very uncomfortable for a meeting. I suggested we look at refurbishing as opposed to throwing out and buying new. Why not take the lockers out, sandblast, repaint and put back up as opposed to buying all new ones. Doesn’t Facebook Marketplace have some nice furniture to put in a teacher’s lounge? Lauren said her biggest concern is safety as she has young ones in school. Doug mostly kept the conversation on track. Alex had a few questions but agreed mostly with what the group thought.
We left about 8:45pm with Kingscott saying they would contact us again and that in the meantime we should spread the word.
And that’s all I have for now. Have a great week and if you can make a meeting, please do! Also, don’t forget about Cornhole. Anyone can play. 🙂
See you soon!
Lisa
Update:
Hi. In my last email I said the next Tavern meeting will be the 5th of May. I meant the 5th of April. Sorry for the confusion…I remain an imperfect individual. 🙂
Lisa
