Hinsdale South Construction Won't Be Complete Until December

The facilities work approved byHinsdale Township High School District 86 board members Tuesday night may be referred to as “summer projects,” but because of their delayed start they won’t be finished until well into the 2013-14 school year.

Doug Lim of Gilbane, the district’s general contractor, said Tuesday night that the projects the board approved by a narrow 4-3 vote at a special meeting likely won’t be completed until late December.

READ: D86 Summer Projects Approved At Last

The approved projects include new exhaust fans and an improved concession stand and ticket office at Hinsdale Central, and a re-done girls locker room and trainer’s room at Hinsdale South.

Lim said that while such projects are best suited for summertime when kids are out of school, this won’t be the first time Gilbane has done work like this during a school year.

“From a safety perspective … I would not be concerned about my students going to school during this construction,” Lim said.

Board member and Facilities Committee chair Ed Corcoran said that the projects aren’t taking place in the hallways or classrooms and that he doesn’t see any safety risk for students.

“I don’t think we can ever eliminate the risk, but I believe we’re going to minimize it and I believe we’ve done that to the best of our ability,” Corcoran said.

Board member Michael Kuhn asked Lim if the projects would affect the buildings at all during the school year, and Lim said yes.

“We just have to be concerned about that as a facilities standpoint,” Kuhn said. “It is going to affect certain things that are going to be happening in our buildings.”

Kuhn said he wondered what will happen if the concession stand and ticket office construction is still going on when basketball season starts around Thanksgiving, but Corcoran dismissed that as “scare tactics.”

Lim said those attending basketball games will not be affected by the work if it was still going on at the time.