321 East Main Street      -    Montezuma   -   641 -623-2700

School board members Doug Johnston and Vince Johnson inspect the
new bus barn construction site.

Board gets a close look at new bus barn 
July 21, 2010

Members of the Montezuma Board of Education toured the construction site of the district's new bus barn during their monthly meeting on Wednesday afternoon, July 21.

Rainy weather has caused some delays on the project. Members had expected to find the structure under roof by now, but that hasn't happened. Tyler Adams, project executive for Septagon Construction, told school superintendent Dave Versteeg that completion date has been pushed back to Sept. 1. Adams was also on hand to answer board members' questions.

During the next month, walls, roof, gutters and downspouts and trims will be installed. The transformer will be set and the radio tower will be relocated from the old bus barn. Overhead door installation should be completed, interior electrical work will be progressing and all metal stud and drywall work should be nearing completion, according to Adams' report.

Board members experessed some concern about drainage onto neighboring property to the south. Adams said construction of the roof will help to ease the potential of that situation when it rains, because the roof of the building will slope to the north.

Back inside, board members approved payment of Septagon's June invoice in the amount of $73,087.66.

While still outside, board members inspected the sidewalk on the west side of Fourth Street. They authorized Versteeg to find out about participating in the City of Montezuma's sidewalk repair program, which could reimburse the district up to $1,320 toward cost of repairing that sidewalk.

In other business, the board accepted the resignation of Rick Swenson from the position of summer recreation director. "I think we need to evaluate the position before we make a replacement," Versteeg told the board. "There is a Little League board now, so there is a question about who should be settling disputes. We should look at what our needs are now."

The board accepted the appointments of Becky Bryan to elementary special education associate and of Marlene Johnson to secondary special education associate. The board also approved the appointment of Brian Kiefer as a part-time janitor.

The board also approved appointment of volunteer football coaches Bill Bolen, Sean Sutfin, Partner Maschmann and Eric Mattson.

Versteeg reported that the state will be adopting new national common core standards for math and science. "It's an upgrade of the Iowa Core Currculum, even before the Iowa Core program is implemented," he said.

Get up close and the bus barn has surprising size.

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