FELLSMERE – The $3 million renovations at the Old Fellsmere School will not be done before the end of the year as the contractor had hoped, according to city officials.
However, the school’s kitchen will be up and running in time for the Frog Leg Festival – to the relief of festival organizers.
“That’s been the overriding concern,” said City Manager Jason Nunemaker, that the kitchen would not be fully functional for the tons of cooking that needs to be done to feed the hungry masses at the four-day event. “That’s a mad house,” Nunemaker said of the school’s kitchen during the festival. The kitchen is the only part of the building that has been in semi-regular use since it stopped being used as a school.
Frog Leg Festival will be held Jan. 21 through 24. Volunteers will be cooking up frog legs, gator tail and other such fare in the kitchen.
Nunemaker said the contractor, Doug Wilson Enterprises, has until mid-July to finish the work to the Old Fellsmere School. The company was hired in 2008 to perform the work.
In late summer, the company said that it was on track for a much earlier opening and had thought the school could be ready for City Hall and the Boys and Girls Club to set up shop around the first of the year.
Nunemaker said fire safety issues cropped up that needed to be resolved and an electrical easement with Florida Power and Light needed to be created – both of which have held up the contractor’s work.
“That was priority one,” Nunemaker said of establishing the FP&L easement, adding that the power company has been doing its best to fast track the work it needs to perform.
With the age of the school building – which was built in 1916 – the power company needs to upgrade the power supply and install a new transformer.
However, in order to perform the work, the company needed an easement that would allow its workers access to the lines.
As for the fire safety concerns, the building needs to be brought up to current fire codes. What exactly that entails is not fully known. Nunemaker expects to bring the items before the Fellsmere City Council for discussion at a future meeting as the upgrades are expected to affect the budget for the renovations.
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