Water Service Line, Parking Lot on School District 1 Facilities Plan

Improvements to a water service line and construction of a new parking lot at the old Tongue River Elementary School – now the Tongue River Learning Center – top the list of projects in Sheridan County School District 1’s 5-Year Facility Plan.

Jeremy Smith, the district’s business manager, said thanks to funds from Wyoming’s Legislature, the district has been able to rebuild most schools in the district over the last 10 or 12 years, and those schools are in good shape.

Now, he said, the district is concentrating most of its major maintenance spending on the older facilities.

Also scheduled for work this summer will be a major parking lot and drop-off area in the front of the building. Smith said the building has become a very busy place, used by the school district and by the Tongue River Community Center.

Also in the district’s 5-year plan, Smith said, is conversion of the coal boiler systems at Tongue River High School to natural gas-fired boilers. He said that project depends on the Tongue River Valley Joint Powers Board bringing natural gas to the Ranchester-Dayton area, which he estimates is about a year away.

Also in the 5-year plan is replacement of windows at Tongue River Middle School. Smith said the middle school was built in 1983, as was the nearby central office building. He said windows in both buildings will be replaced in the third summer from now.

Any exterior doors that need to be replaced will also be dealt with at that time, he said, and improvements will be made to the greenhouse that’s attached to the middle school.

Smith said the district is also looking at doing some additional site lighting in several areas at Tongue River Middle School. He said lighting in those areas is minimal and doesn’t meet current construction standards.

The district also plans conversion to LED lights in its buildings. School District 1 trustees approved the 5-year facility plan in a meeting earlier this week.