Buda School wall being repaired

MANLIUS — Repair work at Bureau Valley South in Buda should be completed within the next couple of weeks.

At Tuesday’s Building Committee meeting in Manlius, Bureau Valley Superintendent Terry Gutshall gave an update on summer projects throughout the district, including repair work being done at the east tower of the Bureau Valley South building in Buda.

Gutshall said the work involves a 4-foot-wide section of wall, from floor to ceiling, where the wall plaster had cracked due to long-term exposure to moisture. The old clay tiles and brick in that section of wall will be replaced by cement blocks.

Gutshall said the project was approved as a Life Safety project in May and he had hoped the work would have been done in June. He has been assured the project will be completed before teachers come back to work in August. The rest of the building, including the east and west towers, have been examined and no structural problems were found.

Building Committee member Don DeWaele said he also talked with the district’s architect, Dave Henneberry, who said the east tower project will be completed as originally planned. No other problems or changes were found. The wall, when completed, will be better by today’s code than when it was originally built, the architect said.

“This project is really not a big deal,” DeWaele said. “If the pile of rubble had been removed from outside the building, then you wouldn’t have known any work was being done in there.”

 Gutshall said he was told the cost of the project would be about “the cost of a teacher,” which Gutshall estimated in the $30,000 to $40,000 range.

In other building work, Gutshall reported on roof repair projects which have been completed at the Manlius, Wyanet Elementary and Bureau Valley North buildings. Life Safety funds covered the cost of those projects, which totaled about $40,000, Gutshall said.

The asbestos removal projects have also been completed at the Bureau Valley South tunnel, Manlius Elementary tunnel and Bureau Valley North tunnel/crawl spaces.

Gutshall also reported on the need for a small shed at the Wyanet site to store equipment like lawnmowers, gas cans and a snow blower. The maintenance equipment is currently stored in the old high school building, which will be demolished later this year. The shed could possibly be built for about $1,000 by the high school woods class, Gutshall said.