Campus Face Lift

John Watson, North Lake’s director of facilities management, said that a number of construction-related projects are near completion, but others are about to begin.

• Waterproofing work on F and J buildings is complete, and the waterproofing contract for the P, H and K buildings will be finalized in September. Work is expected to cost around $2.6 million.

• The gymnasium in the F Building is undergoing a facelift. The water-damaged portions of the floor have been replaced and the entire floor stripped down and resealed. The Blazers’ new logo has been painted in the center of the court.

Watson said that the addition of new two new sets of bleachers and some other minor repairs are next on the agenda for the gym.

• The slope outside of the T Building has not been repaired yet. At a cost of $200,000, Watson said repair attempts have been unsuccessful.

“We’ve already attempted to fix it once and it failed,” he said.

When workers were preparing to lay the new sidewalk above the slope, the soil began to slip towards the lake once again, he explained.

Watson estimates that the next attempt at repairing the slope may cost as much as $600,000.

• The fire alarm upgrades on campus are entering what Watson calls the “punch-list phase” of the project.

The facilities staff is working on fixing glitches in the system as well as filling the holes left in many walls by the removal of the old fire alarms.

The new fire alarm system allows for a greater ability to monitor where an alarm was set off. “Now we can manage it building by building,” Watson said.

He added that the new system would stop false alarms caused by shorts in the old system.

• The new south parking area will be open for use by the start of classes.

The area contains 423 spaces and is located south of the C Building and west of the T Building. Watson said the first phase of reconstruction of the north parking lot would begin in mid- to late October.

“We don’t want to reduce available parking too much,” he said adding that there would be some reductions in the north lot.

He estimates both phases of work on the north parking lot will last about nine to 10 months.

• With help from four NLC students, Watson said that a selection of the program manager for the $450 million bond program across the whole district.

Dawn Lassiter, the Student Government Association president, said that the four students were Gracie Brauser, Hana Worede, Cody Holland, all SGA members, and Arron Thompson, president of the NLC business club.

“I can’t say enough about the caliber of the students,” Watson added.