BROKEN BOW – A group of about 30 gathered in the east commons area of the Broken Bow High School building for a tour Tuesday evening. Wednesday tours were cancelled due to Tuesday evening’s storms.
Broken Bow Superintendent Darren Tobey and Hausmann Construction Project Superintendents Casey Heller and Dylan Chesley served as guides and question-takers.
Tobey opened by stating that all classrooms will be on the high school side of the building for the upcoming school year, whether they were already a classroom or are being made into one. The teachers lounge, for example, will become a classroom.
The group entered the school from the north side and were greeted with hallways stripped of their ceilings, with a rainbow of colored wires strung above imitating spaghetti. Stop number one was the “crossroads” in the hallway in front of the current media center/library and the commons area. Drywall spans the area just to the east doors cutting off access to the high school gym, concession area, and classrooms.
A portion of the current library and media center will become a new concession area, while the area across from it will become restrooms. In the middle school auditorium, a seating increase of 20 will be a result of construction. The gym floor will remain, to be painted black. New stage curtains will be hung, and the sound booth will move from the balcony to the ground level.
The group moved through the middle school, due for full renovation, toward an exit on the furthest southwest corner of the brick structure. When they came outside, they laid eyes on the new construction portion of the $26.5 million bond project.
Heller told the group that the leveled area they were looking at would be the admin and shop/CTE space. Footings are being placed currently, with structure steel shipments expected sometime this week. By next week, Heller said, the public will see steel standing up, due to hold the walls of the new construction.
Wet conditions slowed anticipated progress pace, but crews have been able to make up ground quickly Heller said.
