Cape Junior High gym project is back on schedule

The project to replace what was Central Junior High School's old gymnasium began a year ago next week, and foreman Randy Hedger said Monday the project is back on schedule after seeing setbacks last year.

"We got set back last summer because of the rain and the weather we were having," he said. "But we're making up that ground now over the winter."

The project will install a gymnasium as well as office buildings that open to the south.

"The back side will be a smaller gymnasium than what was here," Hedger said. "It'll be more for P.E. use."

A crew of about 20 men was working Monday afternoon, and structures are taking shape rapidly.

Construction of Cape Girardeau Central Junior High School's new gym and administrative offices continues Monday.Laura Simon

Neil Glass, who will be appointed Cape Girardeau School District superintendent this summer, praised Brockmiller Construction Inc. of Farmington, Missouri, for its work.

"Brockmiller's done a great job managing the project," he said. "Not only with the building but before the project ever started."

The upgrade is replacing a gymnasium that opened in 1955, when the location still housed the high school.

"We're utilizing the old footprint where the existing building used to be," Glass said.

The new facility will be more accessible under Americans with Disabilities Act regulations, he said.

"It addresses a lot of our ADA concerns as well as our security," he said, referring to the new building being better equipped to handle and control visitor traffic.

Downstairs in the lower level will be five new science classrooms, as well as mechanical equipment and bathrooms, Hedger said.

The southern face of the building will house new administrative offices.

"It'll have the principal, assistant principal's new offices. It'll be a new main entrance to the Junior High facility," Hedger said. "And it'll have a big circle drive out in front."

The roof already has been installed on the gymnasium portion, and Hedger said heating soon will follow.

Central Junior High School assistant principal Alan Bruns said the space that houses the principal's office and other administrative buildings will be used for teacher workrooms and expanding the nurse's office.

Hedger said the project is nearing completion.

"We're shooting for the first or middle of May," he said. "They're going to have to move out of the old offices anyway, so we might as well have them move into the new ones."

tgraef@semissourian.com

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