MCDONALD School gets new gym floor

October 17, 2003 at 12:00a.m.

The floor should be ready by the first week of November.
By MARY SMITH
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
McDONALD -- A new gym floor has been installed at newly built Roosevelt Elementary on Seventh Street.
The gym was flooded in August by 8 inches of water that came rushing though the back door. The next day, despite cleanup efforts by school employees and citizens, the floor buckled down the center -- damaged before the doors to the new school could open to pupils for the first time this school year.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is paying 87 percent of the $92,000 total cost of replacing the floor, and the district will pay for the remaining $11,960, schools Treasurer Thomas Radabaugh said.
In addition, a retaining wall is being built behind the school around a sidewalk entry into the gym, at an estimated cost of between $24,000 and $26,000. FEMA will cover the cost of the wall.
Radabaugh explained that the decorative retaining wall at the back of the elementary building will be 3 feet high and create a square section at the back of the gym. The wall will be brick with a sandstone cap that pupils can sit on. Radabaugh explained that a barrier can be slipped into the wall to serve as a floodgate if a torrential should hit the area. He added there is will also be a sump pump in the wall to eliminate extra water.
Specifics of the work
Superintendent Michael Wasser told the board of education Monday that the gym floor is being sanded, which should take about a week. The floor will then be striped, and portable bleachers are being reconditioned and will be reinstalled.
Varnishing the floor is expected to take place during the last week of October, and then the varnish must remain untouched for five days. Wasser said he estimates the floor should be ready by the first week of November.
Wasser said elementary pupils have had gym classes on the high school track and football field, located next to the new elementary school. The superintendent said pupils have been playing soccer and flag football.