After 30 years of use by Danville High School students and the community’s athletic teams, the DHS field house has started to show some wear and tear. And the district is now doing something about it.
A crew from McDowell Builders of Sidell began to make upgrades to the facility this week so that it can be good for another generation of Danville students. The $554,000 project also includes some work inside the high school gymnasium. Skip Truex is the Director of Buildings and Grounds for District 118.
“They’re scraping the paint that’s flaking on the ceiling and then they’re going to be repairing the walls,” he explains. “They’re going to start on the east end of the field house and work their way back. Eventually, we’ll have the entire field house cleared out so that once the painters are done, we can start on the floor.”
The second part of the project involves the current field house floor being ground up and replaced with a new waxed surface. The structure will also receive a paint scheme that will be more colorful.
One of the other visible projects this summer is the staff and public parking lot on the west side of Jackson Street. After decades of being a gravel lot, Truex says it is finally being paved.
“That parking lot, it needs to be a solid surface,” he says. “It will make it easily accessible for ADA, inclement weather for walking, and stuff like that. It’s in need.”
School board members approved the renovation project in February and the parking lot bid Wednesday night. Both will be completed once students return in the fall. The field house has been partly used as a lunch room this year due to COVID-19 social distancing guidelines.
