Full steam ahead on South Putnam construction projects

There will be a ribbon cutting and re-dedication ceremony of the facility Friday night at 5 p.m. before the Eagles take on Speedway High School. 

Students, faculty and staff being back on the South Putnam campus is not impeding the district's multiple building projects, according to school officials. 

At Wednesday's South Putnam School Board meeting, the board got another update from officials with MKS on how the building projects have been coming along. 

Doug Grambow, onsite construction manager for MKS, told the district that despite school starting, there has been some "good headway" that has taken place. He noted there are a lot of milestones coming up in the near future. 

"The contractors have been doing great crossing the finish line on some of the line items," Grambow said. 

When it comes to the upgrades at the South Putnam High School football stadium, the turf has been laid and the track upgrades are completed and ready to go for Friday's first football game of the 2024 season. There will be a ribbon cutting and re-dedication ceremony of the facility Friday night at 5 p.m. before the Eagles take on Speedway High School. 

"The track is done and the lines are striped. Pretty excited to have that done now, and everyone is excited. The track is all dry and you can walk across it. The school owns the field and has a warranty to go with it if something happens," Grambow said. 

The district also got an update on the roof projects that have taken place across the district. According to Grambow, the roof aspect was an "exciting" one. 

"At first, we had two sets to do and it increased to four. All got done and we are waiting on some trim that will be coming in the next couple weeks," Grambow said. 

Grambow was asked if contractors found any soggy sections, and he acknowledged one was. 

"We found one soggy section during the pullout test of the hardware, but that was the worst that anyone saw. The roof is an interesting project. The contractor had 50 guys here at a clip, and they did a good job. The exciting thing is with all the jobs and man hours, there were zero injuries," Grambow said. 

The biggest project, which is the fieldhouse project at South Putnam High School, is beginning, according to Grambow. 

"We are getting moving on that," Grambow said.

Grambow stated there will be a kickoff meeting Friday with all the subcontractors to go over what MKS is looking for from them. 

"Hopefully, we are not a big thorn in the school's side and it will all be explained during the meeting," Grambow said. 

In an interesting note, Grambow said contractors are waiting on county and state departments for permits before they can begin work inside the pool project. 

"There will be some pool upgrades, and we are excited about that. We won't get involved on the inside for another month or so. It is nothing that is holding us up. With the nice weather, we have plenty of work to do outside," Grambow said.