In all likelihood, there won\u2019t be any stage performances at Bellwood-Antis High\/Middle School in 2003-04.
\nLast evening, the district\u2019s board of directors voted unanimously to approve a cost estimate and preliminary project plan for nearly $1.3 million in renovations to the 46-year-old auditorium facility.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re now going to move into the preliminary phase of planning with hopes that we\u2019ll be ready in May or June and construction will begin at the end of the summer,\u201d said district Superintendent Rodney Kuhns.
\nWith the project beginning most likely in late August or early September, Kuhns said he doubts the stage will be ready for performances anytime during the upcoming academic year. He said the district would not look elsewhere for places to hold such performances.
\n\u201cAt this point, I think with the scheduling and the problems we\u2019re going to have, it will probably be very difficult to plan anything,\u201d said Kuhns.
\nIn January, school board members learned the cost of renovating the auditorium had doubled since estimates were discussed in November. During the January meeting, Rick Witt, the district\u2019s architect from L.R. Kimball & Associates Inc., informed the board that after members walked through the auditorium and learned of the improvements needed, the project costs jumped from $554,242.50 to well over $1 million.
\nLast evening, school board members agreed to set preliminary project costs at $1,214,978.15.
\n\u201cThis budget, of course, will be tentative,\u201d said Kuhns. \u201cI would hope that it\u2019s finished under budget, but there are so many things we have to put a price on now to get the project going, that may change when it comes time to begin the project.\u201d
\nAccording to Witt, changes to that preliminary plan included adding new doors at the rear of the facility, adding new technology to both the stage and auditorium areas, removal of asbestos from the stage and new construction and developing layout plans for general lighting and sound.
\nBoard members said the auditorium is also in need of a new rigging system. The current system was designed and built in the 1930s and is a fixture in the building. Officials hope a new, mobile rigging fixture would allow stage crews to change stage lighting and hanging props without the use of a ladder.
\nThe project is being funded through money secured from a $2 million bond that was floated in 2002. Kuhns noted the large expenditure does not affect local tax payers because the bond was acquired at such a low-interest rate.
\nAlso, the board approved a second preliminary expenditure of $136,108 to buy additional equipment associated with the project. This equipment will include lights, a new sound system, etc.
\n\u201cMr. (Dick) Bower, our choral director, and our consultant Phil Ray will be preparing the specs for the other equipment that we feel we need to install,\u201d said Kuhns.
\nKuhns also noted this $136,108 will not be figured into the architect\u2019s contract.
\n\u201cHis fee will only be applied to the $1,214,978.15 that was approved by the board,\u201d said Kuhns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In all likelihood, there won\u2019t be any stage performances at Bellwood-Antis High\/Middle School in 2003-04. Last evening, the district\u2019s board of directors voted unanimously to approve a cost estimate and preliminary project plan for nearly $1.3 million in renovations to the 46-year-old auditorium facility. \u201cWe\u2019re now going to move into the preliminary phase of planning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47037\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}