North Cook News

Members of the Fairview District 72 Board of Education were recently updated about construction and other projects within the school district.

Jack Haynes, Frederick Quinn Corporation (FQC) president, and George Demarakis, a principal associate with ARCON Associates, attended the Jan. 18 school board meeting to provide updates on projects within the district.

"One of our key pieces as architects, as we've been working with FQC, (is) helping solve problems and answer questions and (provide) clarifications for contractors,” Demarakis said, according to a video of the meeting posted to the district’s YouTube page. “So as the construction has been going on us and our engineers have been coming out and making sure we're fielding questions, making sure things are meeting the design intent.”

Like with any project, unforeseen issues arise, Demarakis said.

“When you're doing renovations and additions, there are unforeseen issues that come up,” he said. “So it's how do you game plan and pivot correctly. So, our engineers have been doing that."

Despite a few delays from wet weather, crews have started working on the masonry and putting the walls up. Delays in the concrete industry haven't impacted the project, although crews did rework some of the project timelines in case the issue arose, according to comments made in the video.

Contractors also put some paving projects out to bid, such as the track, a tennis/basketball court, parking lots, and bus areas. Frederick Quinn Corporation also received bids for a window project, fencing, gates, and some landscaping for the elementary school and recommended the winning bid for each of the projects to the board for approval.

During the meeting, board members and attendees saw pictures displaying the progress at the Fairview construction site. Construction is expected to be finished by the fall.