Pershing Renovation Underway, Details Hard to Come By
Just across Meaders Lane from the gate seperating Daria Drive (and President George W. Bush’s home) from the rest of the world, there are renovations underway at Pershing Elementary, at least according to the sign posted out front and the handful of construction workers milling about on their lunch break yesterday. The redo is part of the $1.35 billion bond package approved by voters in 2008.
That’s about all I can tell you. I tried, at first, to call the DISD communications folks to see if they could get me some details on the project, but, according to the outgoing message on their voicemail, they are out of the office until July 12.
So, I called around and eventually found the voicemail for the project manager. He returned my call this morning. He acknowledged that, yes, Pershing Elementary is undergoing renovations but no, he couldn’t give me any more details. For that, I would need to talk to DISD’s communications department. Um, the one’s who are out of the office for the next two weeks? Yes. But couldn’t he, as person in charge of the project, give me some basic details? No.
I guess it makes sense, from DISD’s perspective, to control the information that gets out. But why prohibit a contractor from answering those probing, hard-hitting questions like “How long will this take?” and “What exactly do you mean by ‘renovation’?” while all three media relations folks take a vacay?
Oh well. From the magic of Google, I’ve cobbled together a few details. According to this chart, the construction phase of Pershing’s redo lasts from November 2009 to November 2010. And this PDF pegs the cost at a hair over $400,000.
So unless I can find someone who can talk to me before then, I guess I’ll keep banging my head against a wall until July 12. [Sigh]
