Lakeside Junior High starting to take shape

By SHELLEY TERRY - Staff Writer - sterry@starbeacon.com
Star Beacon

June 12, 2008 12:57 am

— SAYBROOK TOWNSHIP — Lakeside Junior High School on Sanborn Road is starting to look like a building.
It may be footers, foundation and a few cement walls, but this new school is really moving along well, construction manager Ben Pintabona said in his report Wednesday night to the Ashtabula Area City School Board. The board met for its monthly work session at Lakeside High School.
"We're very pleased with the quality," Pintabona said. "Anyone who would like to walk through the site is welcome, just stop by the trailer to let us know. We'll give you a hard hat."
Pintabona said the brick on the junior high would match the high school's brick, so it looks like one large campus.
"It will look nice," he said.
As for the old junior high schools, rainy weather delayed the final stages of the demolition of West and Columbus junior highs.
Topsoil will be hauled in to the West Junior High site within the next two days and broken glass will be removed from Columbus Junior High.
At Chestnut Elementary School, the district is preparing to do an asbestos survey, Pintabona said. Come late July or August, demolition will start, he said.
The school board decided to close Chestnut at the end of the school year based on the overall financial status of the district and physical status of the school. A section of the school was built in 1904.
At the Wade Avenue site, where five new elementary schools will be built in a campus-style configuration, architects will be doing the final designs for the foundation next week, Pintabona said.