West Wendover elementary students broke ground on their new school this week, under adult supervision of course.
This January, the Elko County School Board once again voted to put the new estimated $30,000 million West Wendover Elementary school project out to bid again, after the bids came in too high last year.
The new elementary was part of a $33 million project that also included a retro fit of the current elementary school into a middle school, a new road to alleviate traffic congestion and a ball field.
The school board had put the project at the top of the “pay as you go” agenda in which means construction on the new school could start in 2015 and be completed in 2016, 20 years after West Wendover High School opened its doors.
Pay-as-you-go school tax revenue through the end of fiscal year 2013 is estimated at just over $39 million, according to the five-year plan.
The need for a middle school in West Wendover was acknowledged almost since the West Wendover Jr/Sr high school opened in 1996.
However, the project was sidelined in the late 1990’s when the price of gold collapsed and tax revenues in Elko County subsequently plunged. Talk of the new middle school began again in the mid 2000’s, but again the economy turned sour in the Great Recession and all building projects were put on indefinite hold.
In the meantime, West Wendover made due with stopped gap temporary trailers that now house about 50 percent of its elementary students.
With the construction of the new Long Canyon Mine this year and the expected influx of workers and families, the need for expansion of the school system became more time sensitive than ever before.
The major cost cutting changes, Zander said, came not from the building itself but rather its location.
Instead of putting the new school in the middle of the property it was moved closer to the side thus shortening the access road the district committed to build. As any West Wendover parent can attest, traffic is a major safety problem at the current elementary school.
According to the conceptual schedule, construction of the new West Wendover elementary school could begin as early as May 2016. The old elementary school building could then be bid for a renovation into a middle school. Construction on that project could begin in 2017.
