Hamilton Middle School gym project making major progress

HAMILTON — Crews were hard at work for the past week tearing up ground and laying down pipe to supply water to Hamilton Middle School’s new gym.
The project, which began pre-construction on Friday, Sept. 1, has a 300 day timeline for completion, making the gym’s completion date at the start of next school year.
According to Marion County Superintendent Ann West, the project was put out for bid in June of this year, and the bid was awarded to the low bidder, Dominguez Design-Build, Inc. from Pensacola, Fla., at a cost of $4,297,462.
According to West, plans for the new gym originally came about during the negotiations with the City of Hamilton and the Marion County Board of Education.
The current gym for Hamilton Middle School was built in 1938. When the new gym has completed construction, plans are in place to make the old gym a multi-purpose facility that the schools and City of Hamilton will be able to use for productions.
West stated, although the project began just a short time ago, it has moved quickly.
“It seems that every project we have worked on since COVID has been painstakingly slow.  Not so with the HMS gym!” said West.
“The work started immediately after we had the pre-construction meeting and they have already done a lot of the site prep work to get ready for the building phase to begin.
“Right now they are having to install pipes that are large enough to carry water for the bathrooms and fire sprinkler system,” she continued.
“Dominguez Design-Build has done a great job in getting this project off the ground!  It will be exciting to watch as each phase of the building is completed.”
West assured that the new facility will have plenty of room for students when it opened in 2024.
“The goal is for the gym to be ready for school to start in August, 2024. There will be enough seating in the gym for the HMS student body to be seated,” she said.
“We certainly hope that everything continues to move along as quickly as it has so far.”