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Orange Bowl, building renovations eyed

Employees of Young & Wright Architectural speak to the Fredonia Board of Education Tuesday about long-term planning for the district. From left are Kailey McDermott, project designer; Shawn Wright, partner in charge; and Victoria Waleszczak, project designer. OBSERVER Photo by M.J. Stafford.

An architectural firm retained by the Fredonia Central School District has started work on long-term planning for renovating district buildings.

Young & Wright Architectural workers, including partner-in-charge Shawn Wright, spoke to the Fredonia Board of Education March 3 about their efforts.

Wright said their priority is to work with the district “to evaluate the building conditions you already know about.” Victoria Waleszczak, project manager, said preliminary meetings with various district employees have already occurred. Prioritizing items to address is coming next, she said.

Young & Wright will continue to visit district buildings to help come up with a long-term plan that should cover about 15 years, Wright said. “We’ll continue as we make visits out here to the district to add things to the list,” he said.

Wright presented slides of some of the priorities identified so far. Interior concerns at the main campus include things such as room signage, hallway ventilators and doors. Lighting, sidewalks and directional signage were found to be among concerns outside the buildings.

A slide on the Orange Bowl, noting its current lack of compliance with the Americans with Disability Act (ADA), prompted questions from board member Heath Forster. he wondered if renovations to the stadium might lead to a costly “domino effect” if each new bit of work led to a demand for more construction to attain ADA compliance.

“Not necessarily,” Wright said. “I think we’d want to take a look at it to see all the things that need to be resolved.” He noted that new bleachers would have to be ADA-compliant, adding that “we understand the natural landscape of (the Orange Bowl) could be challenging.”

However, the architect stressed that the district will not need to seek ADA compliance for each step of a multi-level project.

Wright concluded by saying Young & Wright won’t formally present any ideas before it works on them with the district’s financial oversight staff, including Business Administrator John Forbes.

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