SOLON — The Board of Education for the Solon Community School District (SCSD) met in regular session Tuesday, March 11 in the district’s administrative offices. Superintendent Davis Eidahl gave an update on renovation plans for Lakeview Elementary, one of several projects approved and funded by voters in the March 2023 $25.5 million bond issue.
Plans for Lakeview include updating or replacing electrical, plumbing, and heating and cooling systems along with replacing many of the interior finishes.
Originally it was thought the work would largely be done during the next couple of summers, however, Eidahl told the Board work will likely begin this fall.
“They’re (OPN Architects and Larson) in the design phase now,” he said noting district administration did a walk-through of Lakeview with OPN and Larson representatives recently .
“We talked about phasing the building, how do we minimize having to move multiple times?”
Phasing the project, he explained would mean teachers and staff may only have to move once. Work this summer will likely consist of putting in a dedicated bus lane on the west side. Interior work will shift into high gear this fall. Davis explained the media center will be divided with work taking place on the west side first.
“At mid-year we’ll switch over to the other side, and probably next summer we’ll do the middle – the media center itself, and the gym. So it’ll be almost two years.”
City, School District at a crossroads over intersection realignment
Eidahl reported a setback in plans for parking lot improvements at Lakeview after a conversation with the City.
“We were going to get started this summer,” said Eidahl, “and when they took plans to the City for permitting they caught us off guard with a project they were thinking about with Highway 382 where they’re looking at Racine, Chabal, and then a bit up by the Library that has that funny turn.”
Eidahl said the City Engineer had drawn up a plan to realign Chabal Street that would have it cross 382 and go directly into the east side parking lot at Lakeview.
“So we waved the red flags hard on that,” he said. “We had a meeting with the City and told them all of the reasons that would not work. We gave them some other ideas that they’re going back to the drawing board (with).”
The Solon City Council discussed the matter at their Wednesday, March 19 regular meeting.
City Administrator Cami Rasmussen said the Streets Committee had met.
“We wanted to make sure that the school wasn’t putting in improvements that would be negatively impacted by the future reconstruction of that intersection and vice-versa.” City Engineer Dave Schechinger and Rasmussen have been meeting with the SCSD’s engineer on designs, “and we wanted input from the Streets Committee on those designs. We’re going to do some additional studies but it won’t inhibit or prevent the school from beginning their project.”