School district approves temporary lease

Batch plant for subsidence project to be set up at old Hanna Elementary School site

For the past year, the coal mines under the town of Hanna have been one of multiple projects taken on by the Abandoned Mine Land (AML) program of the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).

The process has been to fill the miles of shafts under the town with grout to prevent any future subsidence. Last summer, the Hanna Elementary School and the Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) Junior/Senior High School were the focus of AML before the agency expanded to other parts of town.

On May 17, Joel James of Brierley Associates, which has been managing the project for AML, appeared before the Carbon County School District No. 2 (CCSD2) Board of Trustees to discuss a short-term lease for C J Mahan Construction Company. 

“What we’re looking at is the start of another project, another phase, in Hanna and we’re looking at using your guys’ old elementary school site,” said James. “We’re working through a couple issues right now.”

According to James, the site of the old Hanna Elementary School was an ideal place to set up a temporary batch plant to produce the grout used to fill the abandoned mines under Hanna. One of the reasons why the location was so ideal was partly due to the fact there were so few places in Hanna to set up such a temporary facility.

While CCSD2 Superintendent Jim Copeland and representatives for C J Mahan were in attendance at the May meeting of the Hanna Town Council, Copeland said there was little public discussion about the temporary batch plant. According to the superintendent, however, one potential issue was the community garden maintained by the Hanna Agricultural Resource Team (HART) on the same property.

Copeland told the Board of Trustees that, thanks to HEM principal Steven Priest, the district had been able to get in contact with HART member Ellen Freeman. With the old elementary school site being the ideal location, C J Mahan had offered to relocate the community garden from the old elementary school closer to the HEM campus. This, in turn, would allow HART to work closer with the Hanna chapter of the FFA.

Kassey Westring, CCSD2 Board of Trustee member, asked James how difficult it would be to relocate the community garden from it’s current location. James replied it wouldn’t be too difficult and his company would likely hire a subcontractor to do the relocation. Additionally, not only would the community garden be relocated, but the football field and track at HEM would be refurbished as well.

The Board of Trustees voted unanimously to engage in a seven month lease with C J Mahan Construction Company with the option to extend the lease as needed.

The next meeting of the Carbon County School District No. 2 Board of Trustees will be at 6 p.m. on June 21 at the Central Office in Saratoga.

 

Reader Comments(0)