School board OKs facility upgrades

Posted by Rich Schwartzman on April 23, 2019

Unionville-Chadds Ford School Board directors Monday night voted to go ahead with several building improvements by authorizing the spending of more than $1.35 million on the facilities. They also voted to spend more than $55,000 on kitchen equipment.

Charles F. Patton Middle School will be the recipient of most of the work. The board voted to spend $714,710 for a partial roof replacement, as well as another $148,500 for the school’s media center.

Director Gregg Lindner said the roof at Patton is 47 years old, so the district had definitely gotten its money’s worth. “We’ve gotten our full value out of that particular roof, and the middle school could use a new energy efficient roof replacement, which is going to go in,” he said.

Lindner also said the media center upgrade at Patton modernizes the library and makes for more flexible use of space.

While none of the contractors awarded any of the projects were mentioned during the meeting, the roof work went to Roofers Edge, of Dunkirk, N.Y., and the media center upgrade contract was awarded to BSS Contractors, of West Grove, according to the online documents.

BSS was also awarded a $126,000 contract to improve the stair tower at Unionville High School and Roofers Edge was given the contract to improve the roof system over the gymnasium and cafeteria at Chadds Ford Elementary School for $107,000.

CFES and Unionville Elementary School will have some carpeting removed and replaced with tile. The cost of that work is $14,000, with the contract going to G & F Carpet of Oxford.

The board also awarded a $187,400 contract to New Holland Chainlink to install netting along the varsity and junior varsity baseball fields at Unionville High School. And an additional $56,000 is to be spent on seal coating and paving at CFES, CFPMS and at the district office.

Another $55,447 will go toward replacing a dishwashing machine at Patton Middle School and for a kitchen equipment upgrade at the high school.

About Rich Schwartzman

Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.