Safety Last

The District’s has undertaken a great many projects early to get them done before a new school board can stop them and also to be able to argue that so much money has been spent a security bond must be imposed on anyone challenging the plan in court.

Plans to speed up the demolition of Ordean are underway and the District has just decided to begin the construction of Denfeld’s new additions and foundation work this summer and work all through the next school year while the students are in class.

When one reporter checked in with the District’s PR person she was testily told that the District wouldn’t do anything to endanger the safety of students.

I can’t think of a nuisance more attractive to high school boys than a construction site. A full year of big machines, excavation and goodness knows what else going on and the District thinks the kids will ignore it. It also reminds me of the kind of unavoidable mistakes that happen near such sites.

When I was attending Mankato State I went the student union one evening and parked near an excavation that was not properly roped off. I found myself in a eight foot deep hole a hundred feet from the front door. My head just missed a piece of pipe that stuck out from the sides of the hole.

That single hole was only there for a week or less. We told the adjuster for the construction company that my only loss was a torn shirt. Someone had to fork over $36 bucks or so to make it good. It could have been worse.

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