Rusting Canopy Columns Found During Capital Project
Life is full of surprises, or so the saying goes. The same can be said for capital projects, as the Huntington School District and countless homeowners can readily attest to. But, Assistant Superintendent David H. Grackin is taking the latest twist in stride.
In the midst of extensive reconstruction to the roadway, sidewalks and curbs in front of Huntington High School, workers found that some of the columns supporting the long canopy that shelters part of the sidewalk area were rusting at their base.
“During the course of a capital project unforeseen issues can arise,” Mr. Grackin said. “When the old sidewalk was removed under the canopy in front of the high school, it was discovered that some of the columns holding up the canopy were rusting out below the grade of the sidewalk. Of the 16 columns, several are in this condition and need to be repaired. The remaining columns need to be remediated so that the moderate rust that exists doesn’t generate a future problem.”
Huntington called in its architectural firm, Burton, Behrendt and Smith, which evaluated the existing situation and devised a solution. According to Mr. Grackin, repairing the columns will cost from $10,000 to $12,000.
“There are sufficient funds left in this project to support this as well as to replace approximately 130 feet of curbing that was not part of the original plan,” Mr. Grackin said. The additional curb work will run $3,200. Huntington School Board members will take up the proposed contract changes at their meeting on August 24.
Huntington High School was erected during parts of 1957 and 1958 on 30 acres of land that once comprised the mammoth H. Bellas Hess estate. When the estate was broken up into several smaller parcels, developers moved in with the resulting construction of residential housing, the Big H Shopping Center and the high school, among other projects.
The high school is a two-story structure that includes a third lower level that consists of offices, classroom space, workshop areas and plant facilities. There are also basement areas that provide limited storage and crawl spaces. Some of these subterranean sections were once designated as bomb shelters and stocked with large quantities of water and non-perishable items. Today, they are exceedingly eerie.
The current building replaced a high school facility located on Main Street that was built in 1909-10 (with a 1929 addition), which had become badly outdated and in need of substantial repairs. In 1952 the old high school was enlarged through the annexation of an adjacent building that had been constructed in 1898 and was known up until then as the Main Street School. It housed students in kindergarten through eighth grade and still stands on the site. It was converted to high school use upon the opening of the Village Green School, which is now owned by the Town of Huntington and provides space for senior citizen programs in addition to housing the Cinema Arts Centre.
After students moved to the new high school structure, located at the intersection of Oakwood and McKay Roads, the old building was closed and underwent a nearly three-year renovation before reopening in 1961 as Robert L. Simpson Junior High School. It was used through June 1976 when it was shuddered once and for all and eventually sold to the Town of Huntington for $1. (Residents voted down the sale the first time it was on the ballot before they were convinced that asbestos abatement would cost taxpayers millions.)
The current high school building is the result of decisions made more than a half-century ago. For example, residents defeated a proposal to build a pool adjacent to the gymnasium, with more than one individual claiming it was a waste of money and that students didn’t need it since the waterfront was nearby. Residents did approve construction of a huge auditorium containing more than 1,800 seats instead of opting for a much smaller and intimate one. They were told the larger one could be used for community functions.
In 1966 a large two-story addition was constructed to increase instructional space. The building also includes a ramp that leads to a garage located under the gym where driver education program cars were once parked.
In recent years many areas of the building has been extensively renovated. The district has also tried to stay ahead the curve by performing preventive maintenance and by addressing problems when they are first discovered, as with the rusting columns, rather than allowing them to fester and become more expensive to fix or to develop into safety hazards.
All graphics, photographs, and text appearing on the Huntington Public Schools home page and subsequent official web pages are protected by copyright. Redistribution or commercial use is prohibited without express written permission. Comments or Questions? email the Public Information Office