Plum School Districts Regency Park renovation may need to be tweaked

A surprise finding that complicates remodeling for Regency Park Elementary School is giving the Plum School Board pause.

Fifty-year-old drawings of the school indicated 200 feet of crawl space below the first floor.

Construction officials had planned during the school's construction and remodeling project to run utility lines from the space and throughout the two-story building.

Officials got an unpleasant surprise recently when they found out during an inspection that just a partial crawl space exists, L.R. Kimball project manager Steven Ackerman said during last week's school board meeting. Ackerman said an inspection of the area showed a partial crawl space along with a concrete floor and gravel.

The plan was to gut the building and run new lines from below (in the crawl space), Ackerman said.

Ackerman said that unlike today, building drawings 50 years ago were not done after a construction project was completed.

The Plum School Board in October voted to borrow $10 million for the project, which is expected to cost between $7.9 million and $9.3 million.

Board members discussed both remodeling and adding on to the building and building a new school. Ultimately, they decided to remodel and add on to the school.

The work is expected to begin in June and be completed for the start of the 2016-17 school year. Students will attend classes at the current Holiday Park Elementary School after its students move into their new building.

The project manager said the next step will entail Pennsylvania Soil and Rock drilling into the area where the crawl space exists to measure it and learn more about it. The work is expected to occur during Christmas break.

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Plum School Districts Regency Park renovation may need to be tweaked