Lavonia Tackling Some Summertime Projects

Lavonia work crews are doing some repairs to city owned buildings this summer.

At their meeting last week, City Manager Gary Fesperman gave the City Council and Mayor Ralph Owens and update on repairs to the Scout Hut in Lavonia City Park.

The cement block building was damaged during a winter ice storm when a tree fell on the roof.  Fesperman said the roof has now been repaired and other projects were also completed around the hut.

“All the construction work to fix the rafters inside has been repaired and the new roof has been installed,” he said. “We have also taken down some trees around the hut that was causing issues with the roots pushing the sidewalks up.”

He said by removing the trees around the Scout hut, more sunlight get in and help with dampness issues in the hut.

Later this spring, crews will do more concrete repair work around the Scout hut to complete the project.

And while the City waits for the granite monument bench to commemorate the site of the Spring St. Elementary School, Fesperman said crews will be doing repairs to the old gymnasium, which is now being used as a community center for the Springview Heights neighborhood.

“We noticed that the gutters in several places were leaking. These were the original gutters put on when the building was constructed.  We’ve elected to go ahead and get a quote to have them replaced. This is a stand and seam roof so you have to have special commercial gutters,” Fesperman said. 

Fesperman said the City has contracted with IBC Construction will be changing out the gutters and install the downspouts.

Crews plan to have that work done in the next couple of weeks.

And work to eliminate carpenter bees from the soffets around the Lavonia Community Center will be taking place in the next couple of months.

Fesperman told the City Council last month the bees had eaten through the wooden soffets and facia board around three-quarters of the building.

He said Ivester Construction will be making those repairs.

“That will be a project that will be started probably in the next month,” he said. “Ivester Construction got that bid at the last council meeting. They have other projects they are working on now. We told them they did not have to get to it immediately.  They will be getting to it just as soon as they can work that in.”

Fesperman said they hope to have that work completed by the end of summer.