Wednesday, May 28, 2003
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Wednesday, May 28, 2003 |
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Parking woes to affect MHS and Holy Trinity
By J. FRANK LYNCH
Workers will be on campus at McIntosh High by the end of the week to begin site preparation for rebuilding the school's parking lots. By this time next week, backhoes may already be tearing into the asphalt and concrete where students parked just days ago. Next door, workers at Holy Trinity Catholic Church are scrambling to finish up an expansion of the fellowship and education space that has tied up dozens of parking spots for nearly a year. Holy Trinity has long relied on McIntosh's lots for overflow, but during the most recent construction parishioners have used the high school lot almost exclusively, nearly filling it up on some Sundays. A new gymnasium to be built next school year at McIntosh will occupy a third of the current student lot. To ease the loss, the faculty and visitor lot will be expanded but the school will still lose about 80 spots overall, said Mike Satterfield, facilities services director for the Fayette County school district. The work must be completed by the time teachers and students return in early August. That tight deadline may force an overlap with the Catholic congregation, Satterfield admitted, but he's agreed to tear up the student lot in phases so some overflow parking will be available for at least two more weeks, if needed. "If we give them two more weekends, they feel like they will have their parking lot done," Satterfield said. No one from the church was available to comment on Tuesday. The church has relocated its parish house to the back of the property, nearer the high school, and has purchased a mostly vacant medical building on Prime Point, providing both a back-exit from the church campus and additional parking. Meanwhile, Satterfield said he's still waiting confirmation from the state on just how much of a planned $6.5 million budget outlay the county will receive, money to be used for the McIntosh expansion as well as the addition of an auditorium at Sandy Creek High. It's frustrating, he admitted, but just as well because the construction plans are still a few weeks away from being completed. Once the money is in hand, or promised on paper at least, Satterfield said the McIntosh project will commence with advertisement for bids. The Sandy Creek parking lot will also require some redesign work, but since that school already has a surplus of student parking, it wasn't deemed as vital to complete it this summer. Instead, the entire Sandy Creek proposal will be bid sometime in late summer or fall.
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