By Trent Moore

Staff Writer

Engineers have spent the past few months working to determine what will come next for Garden City School and Fairview High School’s football stadium — two county school facilities that have been condemned due to structural concerns — and the system is still grappling with the effects of those closures.

The main school house at Garden City Elementary was condemned just a week before the start of the fall semester in August, and teachers have been holding classes in a back building and portable trailers the past few months while engineers conducted tests on the main complex. Estimates note it would cost at least $850,000 to repair the damage, and possibly more.

During a routine survey of the campus before the start of the 2014 year, the system’s maintenance staff discovered the foundation underneath the building was sinking and crumbling — those findings were confirmed a few days later by an engineer. In its current condition, the building has been deemed a “life-threatening area” by engineers and has been closed indefinitely for further tests.

Despite emotional pleas from the community, the fate of the school remains in question heading into 2015. Officials say there are no immediate plans to close the elementary campus, though the board has yet to approve any repair plans. At a public meeting, superintendent Dr. Craig Ross they are still seeking more information as to exactly how much repairs might cost before making a decision — though he made it clear the system does not have the finances available to mount a full-fledged repair project at this point.

In Fairview, officials determined the bleachers at the high school’s Dafford Smith Stadium would be unusable due to deterioration less than a week before kickoff for the first home game of 2014, and quickly worked out an agreement with nearby Cullman High School to host home games there for the season. Large cracks were visible in the concrete stands, and an engineer surveyed the facility and deemed it unsafe — especially considering hundreds of people typically pile in on a typical Friday night.

The entire Fairview community essentially made Cullman’s Oliver Woodard Stadium a makeshift home on offset Friday nights, while the Aggies’ real home turf sits idle.

Moving forward, the community has founded a volunteer committee to help with planning for eventual repairs and fundraising for the estimated $2.7 million repair and expansion. The school board is already eyeing plans to remove the old bleachers, which would at least make the field itself usable and provide empty space for temporary seating, though a concrete plan for the stadium’s future has yet to be settled.

Looking across the county, school officials worry additional condemnations could be on the way at other campuses. Many repair and maintenance projects have been delayed or postponed in recent years due to limited funding, and the board fears those lingering issues could be coming to a head soon.

Trent Moore can be reached by e-mail at trentm@cullmantimes.com, or by telephone at 734-2131, ext. 134.