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COLUMBIANA -- The gymnasium at the Columbiana High School will be air conditioned now that the district is able to install air conditioning units there.
The board of education over the last few months has approved change orders for building improvement projects that included the location of the new air conditioning units, as well as the addition of handicap-accessible sidewalks at the Ward Athletic Complex.
District Superintendent Dr. Don Mook said the high school was possibly the only school in the area that didn't have an air conditioned gymnasium.
"It's a pretty comprehensive project," he said, adding that the original plan was to have the new air conditioning units installed on the roof of the school.
"Engineers felt like it wouldn't be supported well enough by our high school so we made arrangements to put that behind the high school," he explained of the change order approved by the board for Daiken Applied at the October meeting.
Concrete for the cement pad where the air conditioners will be installed on the ground behind the building were poured this week.
Mook also explained that a change order approved by the board in October for Brock Builders Inc. was to make the new sidewalks at the baseball and softball field projects at the Ward Athletic Complex ADA compliant.
"The state required accessibility and we didn't have it with the existing plan," he said.
The new work is an extension of the current sidewalks, he added.
He also said that the district hopes to have the ball fields up and running for the spring.
"We are looking hopefully to get a much-needed locker room that has never been at that complex," he added.
He said the original plans had a baseball field and soccer field and locker rooms, but the district did not have the funding available to do the locker rooms in the past.
"It's taken us 26 years to get the point to do it, with no state money," he said.
He added that eventually the district would like it have a roadway to each field installed in order to have access for ambulance services if needed.