Construction projects often face challenges to completion, and chief among those challenges are weather and money. The site of the former Eaton Johnson Middle School has experienced both lately, but County Manager Jordan McMillen said Tuesday he anticipates that by early summer, the renovations to convert the former school should be complete.
The county commissioners approved a change order that adds almost $38,000 to the construction project to transform the Eaton Johnson campus to the new home for the Department of Social Services and the Senior Center, McMillen said in a written statement to WIZS.
Commissioners approved the addition of $37,019.39 to the project cost, he said, to cover costs to make sure the building and ceiling are supported properly to meet building code. These items were discovered during the demolition phase of the project, he added.
The prolonged wet weather and winter ice storms have slowed the project by three or four weeks, but McMillen said work should be able to get back on track for a June or July move-in date for the two agencies.
“This schedule will be refined as we work through the final stages of construction and as we work to move approximately 110 DSS employees, phone equipment, storage cabinets and other items to the new facility,” McMillen said.
The project will bring the Department of Social Services offices under one roof, he added. “Our $4.5 million investment in this facility not only puts a vacant school into reuse, but allows us to look towards the future,” McMillen said. The new senior center more than doubles the current square footage, – from 9,000 to 21,000 square feet – and “will lend itself to serving more seniors in the future and will address concerns we have heard in the past with limited parking downtown for the seniors,” he added.