The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
New turf field installed and ready for play in September
By Kendra Walker
Construction activity at Crested Butte Community School has stayed busy all summer, and progress has been very apparent lately with the recent installation of the new green turf field. Superintendent Leslie Nichols and team members of Gunnison Watershed School District’s owner’s representative Artaic Group shared an update with the Crested Butte News this week regarding the school’s construction activity as the community nears the first day of school.
“The turf has been installed over the entirety of the field,” said Artaic. “The team is currently working on installing the striping, and hope to have that complete by the end of the week.” Following that, nets and fencing will be installed, and the field is slated for completion by September 11.
Last week, the field was vandalized prior to the green turf surface going in. “FCI’s (GWSD’s bond construction company) site camera captured two young men on bikes vandalizing the gravel in the field with hateful and inappropriate images,” said Nichols. “We are working with the CB Marshall’s office on the investigation and hope that the images on the video along with community connections will result in identification of the people who did this.”
While the incident required the field to be regraded prior to placing the turf surface, the Artaic team said it did not slow the construction timeline. “Luckily, the impact of this extra work should not negatively impact our projected field completion date of September 11,” they said.
As far as the rest of the building expansion construction, the team said that crews have been hard at work. Current progress has included work on the existing elementary wing first and second floors, multipurpose room, main hallway, library and media center, as well as repaving and restriping the entire north parking lot, pouring new curb, gutter and sidewalks between Red Lady and the north parking lot, and extensive mechanical equipment upgrades in the mechanical penthouses on the roof.
The first day of school is still on schedule for Monday, August 25. “We are prepared to deliver all of this work on time for the district for the first day of school August 25,” said the team.
“They can expect to come back to beautiful, newly renovated spaces, most of which was performed by local Colorado tradesmen. There will be some troubleshooting of various systems after the students are back, as well as some night shift work.”
Looking ahead, the team said that the elementary and pre-school building addition, secondary school building addition featuring the new science and industrial arts classrooms and entry area building addition for the secondary school will all be completed and turned over to the district later this calendar year. Renovations to the current office and other sections of the secondary school will take place next summer, along with landscaping and a rework of the south parking lot.
“We are grateful for the community’s support, patience and commitment to improving our school,” said Nichols. “Special thanks go to the MetRec district for their nearly $1.3 million contribution to the field project, and to CBCS Booster Club and so many donors for an incredible fundraising effort to Finish the Field by providing the scoreboard and more. We know that all of the headache and dust caused by construction this summer will result in exceptional learning spaces for our CBCS students for many years to come, and we cannot thank the community enough for staying behind us through this entire process.”
