Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV

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June 9, 2009

Ground preparation for PVMS will begin late summer 2009

By CHARLES OWENS

PRINCETON — Site work could begin as early as next month on the new PikeView Middle School project.

Bids for the site work will be opened on June 30, and officials are hoping construction on the new $12.5 million school can be underway by late summer.

“It’s going to be a great project for the future for the citizens here in Mercer County, and the students attending the school,” Todd Boggess, of ET Boggess Architects in Princeton, said. “We are really excited about this project, and the input we’ve received from the parents, students, and board members has really been invaluable to the design. It’s been great to have their input as we design their building.”

Boggess said the site work will include basic grading, road access construction, the extension of utilities to the site, and drainage and sediment control. Boggess said the actual school construction will begin in late summer.

“I would say the building construction will be starting this year,” Boggess said. “The school construction will take about 18 months.”

Kellen Sarles, a spokeswoman for the Mercer County Board of Education, said the project appears to be on schedule.

“I think all along the intention was to have those bids for the site prep out around summer,” Sarles said. “So we are right on target for that.”

The new middle school, slated to be built near PikeView High School in Gardner off Interstate 77, will take in sixth- through eighth-grade students from Athens, Lashmeet/Matoaka, Spanishburg and Oakvale schools. When PikeView Middle School opens, all four of the feeder schools will be reconfigured into K-5 elementary schools.

The new school is expected to house approximately 515 students when it is opened.

“August 2011 is our target opening date,” Sarles said. “We project the school will be finished by the spring of 2011. That would be ideal.”

— Contact Charles Owens at cowens@bdtonline.com

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