Community offers suggestions for new school

    Washington residents had their second chance in as many weeks to provide input on the new high school that will be built adjacent to the junior high. Members of the architectural firm SVPA presented designs for the new school?s layout to a group of about 40 people Monday in the public library. After the presentations, the public had an opportunity to chime in.

    The attendees were split into two groups that addressed different topics concerning the school. One of the groups, which was called Group 1, focused on how to make use of the space available on the block, such as where to place the practice fields, the parking lots and how to manage traffic in the neighborhood. The other group, Group 2, focused more on specific features of the school building itself.

    Throughout the meeting, the two groups wrote down the suggestions offered by their members. At the conclusion of the event, the two groups reunited and explained what had been discussed in one group to the members of the other group.

    Bob Ormsby, who is a project architect with SVPA and who led the discussion in Group 1, summarized the concerns of his group.

    Ormsby said that road access was the No. 1 concern of his group.

    ?We?d really like to see the traffic stay off of avenues C and D,? said Ormsby. ?The streets that are north and west of the junior high are in poor condition and were not designed to serve traffic for the high school.?

    There were many questions in Group 1 about creating a more direct connection with Highway 1. Ormsby said that his group thought it was a good idea to connect Highway 1 with the new school on the south side of the block and that perhaps the entrance to the school should therefore be on the south. Ormsby added that another reason for putting the entrance on the south was that it protects the students from cold, northerly winds during the winter.

    At the same time, the group talked about how the building would be built on a hill, making it visible from Highway 1. Many members of the group thought that the entrance to the building should be on the west side to give a positive impression of the school to people entering town from the south. However, a few group members had reservations about having the school?s entrance face the cemetery, which is west of the junior high.

    Ormsby also remarked that if parking lots were placed on the south side of the school, then the fields will likely be west of the school.

    After Ormsby concluded his presentation on Group 1, Millie Youngquist addressed the crowd about the sentiments of Group 2.

For the full story, see the Nov. 17 edition of The Washington Evening Journal