School board approves up to $200,000 for soil remediation at Liberty Curtain Elementary after last-minute discovery

The school board on July 24 approved funding not to exceed $200,000 to repair unsuitable soil and install drainage at Liberty Curtain Elementary after contractors discovered wet, unstable soil in parts of the new parking lot, a vote that passed 4-2. The work the board approved includes repairs to two failed subgrade areas and a roughly 425-foot French drain around the upper portion of the lot to daylight into an existing retention system.

The change order was approved because a contractorduring recent excavationfound buried fill and a wet bank off School Street that has been sending water into the planned parking area. Sam, a staff member involved in the project, said, "So last Thursday, we were called up, and that's when this particular issue was brought to our attention. And they thought it was gonna be under the threshold for me to approve." He described standing water on the site even though it had not rained that week and said geotechnical testing showed poor,…