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Park and rec golf course plan
landing safely on the green
Not too late to grow
With winter comes higher heating
bills, but help's there
| Grand
old dame prepares for new look |
Bid awarded to return front entrance to Central School, as well as perform
seismic upgrades |
By Christie Scotty, Newberg Graphic
Reporter
Email Christie at cscotty@eaglenewspapers.com
|
 Expect
some movement around Central School’s refurbishment in coming weeks.
The Chehalem Park and Recreation District awarded a $742,198 bid late last
month to Skyward Construction of Ridgefield, Wash., a company specializing in seismic
upgrades and historical restoration.
The company’s bid won out over others after minor bidding irregularities
forced a second bidding session. Now the company could begin the next phase of work on the
aging building as early as this week.
“For that amount, what will occur is we’ll put the front back on,
weatherproof the outside, (install) new gutters, re-roof everything but the flat part (of
the roof) and then go inside and do seismic updates,” said CPRD Superintendent Don
Clements .
A Nov. 1 work permit means construction can begin anytime. Clements said he
excepts the work to span a roughly four-month period, meaning it could be done as soon as
early March.
Clements said the cold, wet weather common to winter months shouldn’t
dampen the construction process much, as most of the improvements will be performed inside
the building.
One component that will be outwardly visible to Newberg residents, however,
is the return of the building’s original front. The school originally featured a
staircase that faced Sheridan Street. Renovations made years later changed the entrances
to the ends of the building.
Approximately $550,000 in Federal funding via Sen. Gordon Smith and Rep.
David Wu is filling in the bulk of the costs, with CPRD’s general fund kicking in the
remaining $275,000, Clements said. “I would say we are slightly underbudget,” he
said of the costs.
The Central School project aims to renovate the old Newberg Public School
District building into a community cultural center. The building was closed in June 1995
and its students transferred to Antonia Crater Elementary.
The project has benefited heavily from lobbying by congressional
representatives Wu and Smith, as well as Sen. Ron Wyden. It could receive further
assistance as part of Newberg’s urban renewal district (URD), providing the downtown
revitalization effort survived an anti-URD ballot initiative on Tuesday’s ballot. |
|
From Nov. 6,
2002, Newberg Graphic
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