SHS Large Animal Facility Almost Completed

The large animal facility being constructed for the agriscience program at is close to completion and should open for the beginning of the 2012-2013 academic year.

The building is only a month away from being "substantially complete," according to a memorandum sent to Superintendent Karen Baldwin from Ed Basile, the Suffield public schools' director of fiscal administration.

The last major piece of the project, a fire pump, will be installed at the end of May. Installation of the pump will take several weeks, according to Basile.

"We will not be able to get a final certificate of occupancy until the fire pump is connected and working properly," Basile's memorandum said. "But it is hoped that we will be able to get a temporary certificate which would allow us to move equipment in and store equipment that we are purchasing for the program."

Only the presentation area of the building remains unpainted and the majority of construction equipment has been moved off site. Basile cited the final grading of land at the rear of the building, the addition of siding, fencing the property and paving the new parking lots as some of the final additions to the building.

"The school will be ready for students in time for the start of school in August," Basile concluded in the memorandum.