The Willie E. Jones Coliseum was supposed to be cool for graduation ceremonies on Saturday. Instead, South Pike school officials, graduates and their friends and relatives were cooling off with program fans, just as they’ve done for years.
The district just had an 80-ton air conditioning unit installed by Metro Mechanical of Bolton — to the tune of some $681,000 — and officials were looking forward to a comfortable ceremony.
But there wasn’t much cool air to be found for the 84 seniors who graduated.
And that got school superintendent Dr. Bill Gunnell steamed enough to call project architect Steve Cox that morning and give him an earful.
On Thursday, district officials met Cox at the coliseum to get proof that the air conditioning works. By the time they left the building to gather for a board meeting, it was a chilly 65 degrees inside the coliseum.
“It was a little less comfortable than that on graduation day,” Cox admitted.
Cox, who had assured the board in April that the building would be cool for graduation, said, there was “a punch list of items.”
Paramount among them is training, Cox said.
“It’s a pretty sophisticated control system,” he said.
District maintenance officials will undergo training to learn all the ins and outs of the air conditioning units. The training will be recorded on video so that the district will have a copy of the operation of the air system.
On Thursday, Cox also updated the board on the construction of the new junior high school facility.
Owen Holland & Son of Bude won the building contract for the 16-classroom facility with a bid of $3,021,247.
“The two wings are coming along well,” Cox said.
He said the contractor’s steel drawings must get approval before steel is put in place, and that’s been the recent hold-up.
“Once that’s done, things will start to move a lot faster,” Cox said.
He projected that the building would be ready for students in the middle or end of the fall semester this year.
