THS additions expected soon

By Michael Butler

The school year has begun and big changes are coming to Tallassee High School.

"It's real tempting to get the cart ahead of the horse, but some of these processes take a little more time," superintendent Wade Shipman said. "I appreciate everything that the city has done. Earlier this summer, we sat down with our attorneys, the city attorney and Johnny Hammock, our mayor and plotted out what we need to do to get this on track."

Among those items is the vacating of Preer Street that runs alongside the high school. The area is where the projected performing arts center will be placed. It currently is used for parking and access to campus.

'We've asked to rezone the properties that we've purchased, so that we can build on those areas," Shipman added. "Once these steps are done, we're going to move to finish up some of our financial planning and sign with our architects. My goal is if things fall into place that we're seeing some dirt moved by the first of the year.

"One of the priorities is to improve the parking around our school. One of the thoughts is to do all of the exterior parking areas first and get the layout correct. As the next school year starts, a lot of our parking situation will be settled."

Architect's rendering of proposed additions

The school system has obtained all properties along Barnett up to the intersection of Dubois.

"We're probably taking all of the houses on Barnett off of that street, once we start the demolition," Shipman said. "The thought is to improve the aeshetics and put some greenery in there. When it's all said and done and we've improved the parking and layout, we're not going to have 50 cars on King Street."

Shipman added that the look of the school back off the street will remain consistent throughout the property.

"We're not bringing parking up to the edge of the street. We're trying to beautify it as we go."

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