Dennis Cole, the project manager for the Phase III renovations taking place at Carroll County’s intermediate school and high school, reported to the school board on June 12 that the projects were “still on schedule.”

“The countdown clock is at 51 days,” said Cole, despite a water leak that dumped 270,000 gallons onto parts of the high school a month ago. “Fortunately, the spill was contained to the first floor.”

Cole said despite the large amount of water, most of the high school’s floors are fine. “Those terrazzo (stone) floors are almost indestructible.”

Cole did say the gym and cafeteria floors will have to be replaced, however. The bad news is the “gym floor is not part of our contract,” but the flooding of the cafeteria “works in our favor,” said Cole, pointing out it would have been tough matching up a new floor with the old one.

Superintendent Dr. James G. Smith added that he has “been pleased” with the way the spill was handled.

Cole told the Carroll County Board of Supervisors a day earlier that the damage could have been a lot worse. While the terrazzo floors prevented further damage, that was not the case with the gym floor.

“Anytime you put water and wood together you are going to have damage and we think that water sat on that floor for as many as eight hours. And the unfortunate part is once it sits on the floor, it is a floating floor so the water gets underneath of it and that whole floor came out,” Cole said. “So what you are going to have at the beginning of the school year is a brand new gym floor paid for by the insurance company. We are very grateful for that.”

Upwards of three inches of water on cafeteria floor caused extensive damage as well, Cole said, as the vinyl asbestos tile started popping up.

“The insurance company has agreed to come in and replace the entire cafeteria floor at the same time, so there will be an abatement of the vinyl asbestos tile at the same time we are doing a cafeteria expansion,” Cole said. “So what we are going to try to do is work in conjunction with the contractor and we will have one installer do both floors so it will be consistent both in color, in material and in timing. We are very pleased to say we are working hand in hand with the insurance adjusters.”

Cole said insurance adjusters have assured Carroll County that both the gym and cafeteria floors will be ready before school opens Aug. 8.

A new HVAC system at CCIS was also discussed, with Cole stressing “that system needs to be in place as soon as possible. It will require an immediate shutdown of the old system to start up the new one.”

As for the high school, Cole said the project was “about 46 to 47 percent complete. The field house should be ready by the start of football season.” He added that the intermediate school renovations are not quite as advanced, but that was due to the type of construction required for that project.

The high school will start the school year with just one gym, however. Board chairman Brian Spencer asked “do we have a plan to accommodate overcrowding with only one gym?” Smith assured Spencer and the other board members that “we have space to relocate students right now.”

Cole offered to set up a tour of the construction sites for board members, but a time for such a tour was not decided on.