GCSC finalizes deal for HOP building

Saturday, May 23, 2015
The former HOP building will soon be the GCSC administration building. The school closed on the deal this week. (Banner Graphic File Photo)

The summer promises to be a busy one in the Greencastle School Corporation now that the first domino has fallen in the plans to relocate the school administration offices.

Talks began several months ago for the school to purchase the HOP building at 1002 Mill Pond Dr., just across Percy Julian Drive from Greencastle Middle School.

On Monday, the school board officially endorsed the purchase of the building for a cost of $1,055,000.

With the board's approval, school officials closed on the property later in the week, setting up a summer of improvement and relocation.

The building is slightly more than 10,000 square feet, houses 16 offices, a computer repair room, several conference areas, a heated warehouse for storage, ample parking and an existing technology infrastructure, among other features, in a two-story building that sits on a 1.29-acre lot that is already zoned properly for administration use, eliminating any need for variances.

The building itself will require some upgrades, including an elevator, new carpet and paint, but it is largely ready for the administration to move in.

Additionally, the adjacent lot will provide a location for possible future expansion.

Superintendent Dawn Puckett told the Banner Graphic the building is uniquely located for easy access to the other buildings in the corporation.

"I really can't think of a place here in town that could be more appropriately located for us," Puckett said. "It's a great location."

While the connections to the middle school, McAnally Center and high school are obvious, Deer Meadow Primary and Tzouanakis Intermediate are also easily accessible with a short drive up Percy Julian Drive to Fawn View Lane and Shadowlawn Avenue.

Ridpath Primary, likewise, is not too far away via Veterans Highway.

Had the building not become available, the school might have been forced to pursue a more costly option.

"Before it became available, we were considering building something on land we had at Deer Meadow," Puckett said. "And this is going to cost about half as much."

With those extra funds, a number of needed improvements will be made on school buildings, including new restrooms at GHS, new McAnally locker rooms, seal coating on all school parking lots and new HVAC controls at GMS and Tzouanakis.

None of this takes into account the improvements that will be made at various school buildings simply by freeing up classroom space currently occupied by administrative uses.

The new building will pull together special services, food service, finance, human resources, information technology and other administrative functions into a single location.

"For each of those services we move back into a central location, it frees up classroom space," Puckett said.

This includes space taken up in the high school by IT and food services, space in Tzouanakis occupied by special services and the space the central office has occupied in Ridpath the last five years.

"When we moved in here (Ridpath), we were very careful to keep the rooms intact," Puckett said, pointing out that office walls can be removed with minimal work and that her own office still bears the carpet of a kindergarten classroom.

School officials are aiming for a Monday, July 13 moving day to the new building.

The real estate purchase and other improvement projects will be paid through bonds, meaning no new impact on taxpayers.

The other major construction project of the summer will be a new roof at Deer Meadow Primary.

The old, shingle roof has been a source of consternation since the school opened in 2001. After 14 years and a number of repairs, the roof will now be completely repaired with a different type of roof.

"They did some repair work a couple of years ago," Puckett said. "This is what we consider to be a full-blown solution to the problem."

At the recommendation of a structural engineer and Moisture Management, the shingle roof will be replaced by a PVC membrane roof.

The new roof is expected to have a 20-year life expectancy.

The goal is to stay busy with school improvements and repairs throughout the summer months, with projects complete when students return to the classroom on Thursday, Aug. 6.

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  • GREAT MOVE!

    -- Posted by Wait a minute on Sat, May 23, 2015, at 7:22 AM
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