Signage and the window curtain wall at the renovated Ringing Rocks Elementary School
POTTSTOWN PA – Tick-tock. The clock’s winding down on the official deadline – it’s Friday (Sept. 30, 2011) – when work on the Ringing Rocks Elementary School reconstruction and renovation project must be completed.
Otherwise its contractor faces financial penalties, and betting is good that builder E.R. Stuebner Inc. would rather not return cash to the Pottsgrove School District for a delay. In fact, to ensure that doesn’t happen, construction workers this week have been putting in late-night hours to ensure they’re finished on time.
“We’re in the home stretch,” district Business Administrator David Nester cheered Tuesday (Sept. 27), as he reported to the Pottsgrove Board of School Directors on progress at Ringing. “We’re within shouting distance.”
It’s been a lengthier-than-expected shout. Originally, Stuebner and its subcontractors were to have been done by Aug. 17. But winter was snowier than usual and summer rainier than usual, and maybe the district should cut the companies a break, Nester suggested during the board’s Aug. 9 meeting. Directors were under “no formal requirement to do so,” he acknowledged, but they agreed with his assessment that “conditions were beyond the control of the contractor.”
Now, most said Tuesday, they’re anxious to have Ringing wrapped up.
That doesn’t mean the expanded and gleaming building will be ready for immediate occupancy; far from it. Once the deadline is met, the district and contractor will work through a “punch list” of items missed or to be corrected. Then the building must be furnished and restocked, and teachers will need time to set up their rooms. Ringing isn’t scheduled to open until after New Year’s Day.
Topping the punch list may be the state of the playing field just to the west of the building, under which lies piping and wells for its geothermal heating and cooling system. The field isn’t level, board Vice President Scott Fulmer pointed out during an Aug. 23 meeting, which could adversely affect soccer and other games played there. A later civil engineering report confirmed his observation.
“There’s been a meeting of the minds” about the field, Nester noted Tuesday, and indicated it would be fixed at no cost to the district. “But it’s rained a bit since then, again,” he added.
Related to the Ringing project, the board during its Sept. 13 meeting approved five separate change orders for work to be done, amounting to a net additional cost of about $63,000. It also approved invoice payments to three firms, including Stuebner, for their work. As of that date, the district still owed more than $706,000 for the completed building.
The building's west-side facade, gleaming in early-evening sun
Related (to Ringing Rocks Elementary School renovations):
- Hear That? It’s The Ticking Deadline Clock At Ringing
- Ringing Rocks Delivery Could Be On Santa’s Wishlist
- Pottsgrove Board Tours, And Likes, Progress At Ringing
- No Power For Ringing Library Computers ‘An Omission’
- Blasting A Possibility, But Not Yet, At Ringing Rocks
- Few Change Orders, So Far, At Ringing Rocks
- Rigs Arrive At Ringing Site To Drill Deep For Geo-Heat
- Exterior Demolition To Begin At Ringing Rocks
- Digging’s Done, Now Real Work Starts At Ringing
- Ringing Rocks Ground-Breaking Set For Thursday
- After Month’s Work, Pius Deemed Set For Ringing Pupils
- Ringing Rocks Bids Accepted, At $1.5 Million Less
- Final Words On Ringing Rocks: Okey-Dokey
- Ringing Rocks Gets Final Plan OK
- Borrowing Authorized For Ringing Rocks Project
- Pottsgrove Signs Pius Lease For Ringing Students
- Pottsgrove Authorizes Pius Lease For Ringing Relocation
- Call Goes Out For Ringing Rocks Construction Bids
- Board OKs Ringing Rocks’ Preliminary Plans
- School Vestibule Design OK; No Decision On Rocks’ Relocation
- Ringing Rocks Plan Approval Held Until May
- Ringing Relocation Decision Deferred Again
- Township Legal Move Saves District Time, Money
- Economic Tales, Exec Sessions, And Long Night At Pottsgrove
- Geothermal Now ‘Locked’ Into Ringing Re-Build
- How Estimated Costs For Ringing Shape Up
- Less Is More In School Project, Planners Learn
- Bids Sought For Ringing Project Asbestos Removal
- Ringing Relocation Decision Possible In Two Weeks
- Restaurant, Ringing Projects Win Conditional Uses
- Ringing Rocks, Restaurant Hearing Topics Tonight
- Pottsgrove Student Enrollment: Up? Yes. Down? Yes Again
- Green Discussion At Ringing Results In Red Faces
- Pottsgrove, Archdiocese Still Discussing Pius Lease
- Ringing Rocks Relocation Discussion Set For Tonight
- In The Ringing Rebuild, Whither Pius?
- Ringing Rocks Relocation Plan: Modulars At MS
- Ringing Rocks Construction Cost Hearing Tonight
- Planners OK Ringing Rocks Land Sketch
- District Sets Dec. 3 Hearing On Rocks Budget
- Pottsgrove Asks State Help To Pay For Ringing Re-Build
- As School Opens, Progress On Ringing Rocks’ Project
- Surprise Enrollment Spurs Demographic Interest
- District Assembles Ringing Rocks Planning Team
- District OKs Architect Negotiations
- Consensus On Ringing Renovations: $16M
- Ringing Rocks Proposals Aired Tuesday
- Ringing Rocks Re-Examined April 14
- Pottsgrove To Trust-But-Verify On Ringing Plans
- Ringing Rocks Plans Take Another Step
- No Shortage Of Ideas At Pottsgrove Meeting
- Weigh In On Pottsgrove Renovations
- Framing The Rocks Discussion
- Response Mixed To Pottsgrove Improvements
- District Invites Public For Study Results
- A Different Rocks, But Only As A Concept
Related (to the Pottsgrove Board of School Directors’ meeting of Sept. 27):
- Hear That? It’s The Ticking Deadline Clock At Ringing
- Committee: Pottsgrove High Needs Work, Not Renovation
- Area Company’s Donation Benefits Pottsgrove Students
