August 2003

Ran: San Diego Union-Tribune North Inland - Friday, August 15, 2003

Despite Bees, swarm of workers busy on 3 Fallbrook schools

By: Patty McCormac

FALLBROOK - The mission: to complete a $15 million modernization project at three schools, all during 72 days of summer vacation.

Status report: Despite encounters with bees and asbestos, everything should be ready by Aug. 25, the first day of school.

"We're on schedule," said David Medcalf, vice president of Douglas E. Barnhart Inc., the contractor. "We will probably be working the evening before school opens, but that is not usual."

Before construction began, Barnhart and the Fallbrook Chamber of Commerce distributed a request for "mega contractors" capable of a two-shift operation. Barnhart, which has offices in Palm Springs, Sacramento and San Diego, got the nod.

"There was a large scope of work they have to do in this type of job, in that time frame," Medcalf said. "Certain contractors have the ability."

Seven days a week this summer, an average of 325 workers have been swarming over Mary Fay Pendleton School on Camp Pendleton, Fallbrook Street School and Potter Junior High School, gutting classrooms, digging trenches and installing new plumbing, storm drains, sewer systems, electric lines and concrete walkways.

"Since the job started we have been working every day," Medcalf said. "All of the trades will be accelerated now. Some of the crews that were working 12 hours a day have gone back to eight, while some, like the finish trades, who were working eight are not working 12."

An intense four months of planning before construction started has helped iron out most-but not all-kinks.

Materials were purchased and the construction schedule finalized in advance, so that workers were poised to begin the minute school got out in June.

"The analogy that has been floating around is that it was like a Mervyn's sale where everyone kind of rushes in," Medcalf said.

The improvements are the first using money from a $32 million bond measure approved by Fallbrook voters in November 2002. Next summer three more schools will be remodeled.

Though this summer's work appears on track and under budges, there were a number of surprises. But there were bound to be when tearing open schools built from 1938 to the 1960s, said Ray Proctor, assistant superintendent of the Fallbrook Elementary School District.

Workers found bees in the walls of Mary Fay Pendleton school.

"It was a hive in there," Proctor said. "They had to pull it out and resheet that. There was also asbestos in the plaster of the multipurpose room there and in some ceiling tiles at Potter."

"It's not unusual to find asbestos in an old building, but bees are," Medcalf said. "We had to take the siding off and remove the bees."

There also was the matter of using explosives on Camp Pendleton to remove granite to make way for storm drains and sewers at Mary Fay.

Work crews got a permit to bring the explosives on base, but for a time there was question about actually being permitted to use them due to security concerns.

"We just had some procedural issues that needed to be taking care of," Medcalf said. "It didn't impact our schedule for more than one day. The base wanted to have a few forms filled out that identified what material we were using."

Another setback was having to rip up about $250,000 worth of concrete walkway to satisfy requirements of the Americans With Disabilities Act. That's because a half-inch difference in height between a walkway and a doorway was once considered acceptable, but is no longer allowed.

What was supposed to be a fairly easy modernization of the Bowers Auditorium on the grounds of Potter Junior High quickly grew more complicated.

Plans had called for fixing a leaky roof and adding wheelchair lifts, wheelchair ramps, new flooring, lighting and an air-conditioning system.

Once workers got inside the 10,000-square-foot auditorium, built in the 1960s, they found structural issues in the ceiling and roof that made a new roof necessary. The cost will be about $1.4 million, Proctor said, and should be finished by December.

Even with all the surprises, the project is about $350,000 under budget, Proctor said. New heating and air-conditioning systems have been installed in classrooms, along with computer-friendly wiring, dropped ceilings, new sinks, cabinets and walls.

"I am very pleased with what has been happening," said Wil Gower, chairman of an oversight committee which keeps tabs on the project. The committee will report back to the community in the fall.

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