YOUNGSTOWN SCHOOLS Board gets details on project status

Harding and Taft asbestos removal and demolition projects are ahead of schedule.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Parts of the $182.5 million, six-year city schools construction and renovation project are running ahead of schedule, but parts are behind schedule, the project manager told the board of education.
"For the most part, we're tracking very well," Steven L. Ludwinski, senior project manager with Heery International Inc., said Tuesday.
The asbestos removal and demolition projects, which are to be completed this year at Harding and Taft elementary schools, are ahead of schedule, and bids for this work came in below estimates, he told the board. Replacements for both schools will be built on the same sites after both schools are demolished.
Ludwinski said he is concerned about delays in the West Elementary and East Middle School projects.
Ludwinski said he is most concerned about the new West Elementary project, which he said is four weeks behind schedule.
"It's very important that we resolve that site acquisition issue on West Elementary," he said, noting that city councilmen have told him council may act next week on the matter.
What's behind delays
The new West Elementary School is to be built at Schenley Park on a site that consists of both board-owned and city-owned land.
The East Middle School project, already delayed by the switch from renovation to construction and the search for a construction site, may be further delayed by the need to make arrangements with the city for street improvements on Bryn Mawr Avenue to accommodate the new school, he said.
Expansion and renovation projects at Paul C. Bunn and Mary Haddow elementary schools are two weeks behind schedule, he said. "Two weeks, I'm not worried about. We can make that up very easily," he added.
Considerable work has been done on roof repairs and replacements, design, land acquisition and temporary pupil relocation for various phases of the project, he told the board.