By ADAM SWIFT
PEABODY — For students and staff, the first year is in the books at the new Higgins Middle School.
But that doesn’t mean work on the $92.6-million project is over. Over the summer, work will continue on the school’s athletic field, with the hope that the grass turf will be strong enough for use by next year.
“Depending on how the seed takes, we’re still looking at the fall of 2018 to be able to use that field,” said School Committee member Beverley Ann Griffin Dunne. “But, so people know, it could be the spring of 2019. That’s only so we have a good permanent solid field. If we do have to wait, it will end up being worth it in the end because no one wants to be playing in the mud.”
Although it will be at least a year before the athletic field is in use, Dunne said there has been major progress made in the past month.
“By the end of (this) week, the seeding should be completed on the field,” said Dunne. “If you drive by there now, you can really see the field. They took down some of the piles of dirt and all of a sudden you can see the whole thing. It will be beautiful for the whole city to use.”
In addition to the athletic field, landscaping and seeding is also taking place in several other areas around the Higgins during the summer. One landscaping issue that hasn’t been quite up to par, according to Dunne, is the bioretention area in front of the school.
“One of the things that happened there is that there are four different types of seed,” she said. “We will be working on an overall plan on how it is to be mowed and maintained. Certain areas of that bioretention area were designed to be very low maintenance, and we’re trying to adjust that to make sure that’s what happens.”
Inside the school, there are a few issues needing some minor tweaking.
“We’ve been having an awful time with the faucets,” Dunne said.
The company that installed the faucets has replaced them and will be checking to make sure the new faucets work properly either this week or next.
Construction began on the new school, only feet away from the old Higgins Middle School, in the summer of 2014 and was occupied by students during the recently completed school year. The Massachusetts School Building Authority is covering just under $44 million of the project cost.