Thursday, December 14, 2006

Lancaster HS rekeying: How new football stadium caused the mess

By Steve Snyder of TODAY Newspapers

In my original open records request on the matter, construction manager Elvin Lotten claimed that the school district was not responsible for rekeying classroom locks at Lancaster High School.

Contrary to Jeff Melcher’s thinking that this actually would be the case, that the district would not be responsible, I talked with a commercial architect friend the week I first heard about the rekeying problem. He confirmed that it’s the normal, standard situation for the business or other entity taking possession of such a building to do the rekeying.

That entity, in this case the school district, knows how many copies of each key should be made, who should get them, etc. A contractor, subcontractor or outside construction management company doesn’t have any idea about that.

Well, lo and behold, supposedly the district had not taken possession of the high school yet. While Lotten told us that, he didn’t tell us why.

(And I, in a bit of oversight, left that question off my second open records request. But, there’s always follow-ups to follow-ups, right?)

Well, then, what the flying firetruck was Lancaster ISD and Superintendent Larry Lewis doing opening the new high school for business in August if the district had not physically taken possession of it?

Well, that gets back to his grand scheme for the bond of building the football stadium and practice facility before building the high school itself.

I’ll admit, at the time, I believed everything that was said about the district’s “stadium first” building plan. And, some bond work I think was great, such as renovating the old, old high school for a district administration building, along with the old Rocky Crest school.

Well, it looks like you miscalculated, Larry, or else Gallagher did on its construction timetable estimates. Gallagher and its subs didn’t get the new high school done in time, but because you built it a year AFTER the football stadium, you had no choice but to occupy it even though it wasn’t done.

That, then, gets into liability issues. A couple of people here brought up the Pennsylvania Amish country school standoff, wondering about the possibility of a deranged person coming in the new high school.

But, that’s not the only issue. Think of injury from construction debris. Or an asthma attack from fumes not yet fully vented.

Meanwhile, Lewis and Lotten surely didn’t want to answer my follow-up questions because they will actually put somebody on the spot, thereby putting the next bond election in further jeopardy.

If they have to put themselves or other district personnel on the spot, well, that’s obviously trouble. If they have to name names from Gallagher or a subcontractor, well, since Lewis has already committed to continuing to use Gallagher, that kills the chance of selling the next bond to the public.

I know that. That’s why in my Lancaster Today op-ed coliumn for this week, among other things, I said:

"Name names. Assign responsibility."

We shall see if any of that is actually done.

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