Orange City, Iowa — Work continues toward a new MOC/Floyd Valley Elementary School building between Alton and Orange City on Highway 10.
We talked to MOC/Floyd Valley superintendent Russ Adams, who gives us an update.
(as said:) “We’ve had a great fall for preparing. Lieber Construction has been doing a lot of work out at the new site. In fact, we actually… because of the weather… were able to get a little further than we had thought. I think our construction management firm Klinger Construction as Chad said we are into the gravy period we’ve accomplished everything that we had hoped to accomplish before the snow flies and we’ll have gone a little further. So every day is a benefit now, so we’re real happy with that. The big thing that we accomplished was carving out the footprint of the building. The idea behind that if you get that all carved out and compacted and everything and then it can drain and be shaped again a little bit more over the winter months and hopefully be prepared for building right away in the spring.”
He gives us an idea of the timeline for the project.
(as said:)”We let out the first bid package and Lieber Construction won that package and is doing the excavation work and we’ll have another bid package it’ll go out after the first of the year, but that will be for some of the precast materials and then once the spring hits and we’re able to actually start construction, we’ll get going on that and frankly it builds over and we would occupy the new building in the summer of 2023 so that we can start the 2023 school year in the new building.“
Funds for the project come from a school bond that was approved in March.
(as said:) “The bond vote was for 37 million dollars and that is primarily for the elementary building. They’ll be a little bit of that is focused on maybe a little bit of expansion at the high school as far as some classrooms and improving our special education area and office areas, but the vast majority is for the elementary school. And again that we passed that bond vote or bond issue on March 3rd, obviously just before the pandemic really took hold so we were thankful for the timing of the opportunity.”
Again, Adams says they hope to start the autumn 2023 semester in the new building.
