By Marshall Tempest
Reporter
It has been two weeks since the school district’s acting chief facilities officer for the Apopka High School baseball and softball complex projects, told parents of the Apopka baseball and softball families that their fields could be operational and safe for occupancy by Thursday, March 13. Neither complex was ready for occupancy at that time, but the district hopes to wrap up the process this week.
Rory Salimbene, the acting chief facilities officer for Orange County Public Schools, said Tuesday that he and the district believe the complexes will be ready for occupancy by the end of spring break, although he added a caveat.
“That’s barring some unforeseen things occurring as we continue to finish the inspection process,” Salimbene said. “I can’t tell people that it’s going to happen, but I’m optimistic that it will.”
Salimbene said he and OCPS have been working every day to ensure the projects get done and the complexes are safe to occupy. He said he has been communicating daily with Apopka High School’s principal, Lyle Heinz, to update him on construction and final inspections.
One of the more significant questions parents asked Salimbene in an early March meeting was if he had been down to the field to see the project with his own eyes. He had answered no. When I asked him this week if he had been down to the complex since that meeting, his answer was the same.
“I personally have not,” Salimbene said. “This is a relatively small project among all the things that we have going on. My facilities executive director (K. Mike Winter) has been out on multiple occasions.”
Salimbene said that Winter is the facilities executive director and is responsible for the construction program, so he has been the district’s on-site presence. Salimbene said that Winter had also been to the field at the time of the early March meeting, and he has been there since then. Salimbene said White is responsible for OCPS construction projects.
At the time of the meeting with parents in early March, Salimbene gave a list of what needed to be finished before both complexes were safe for occupancy.
For the baseball complex, the roof needed corrective work, the plans for installing new bleachers needed to be resubmitted, they still needed to pass the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s (FDEP) wastewater clearance, foul ball netting needed to be installed, electrical installation documentation needed to be corrected and resubmitted for final inspections and the design inconsistencies between the home and away dugouts needed to be addressed.
Since then, the roofing problems have been resolved as OCPS contractors removed roofing sections, replaced them, and passed the final inspection. The bleachers were removed and reinstalled to meet safety requirements and have passed inspection. On Tuesday, March 18, testing of the water and wastewater systems was completed, and FDEP granted clearance.
The final certification of occupancy and final electrical inspection still needs to be completed. Salimbene said that a design issue has been identified that must be fixed before the electrical system can pass inspection. Salimbene said that he believes that it will be finished by the end of spring break.
But the foul-ball netting won’t be done by the end of spring break. Foul ball netting is needed to prevent balls from damaging the property of neighbors and fans.
“Clearly, netting was needed, and we’re going to install the netting as quickly as we can,” Salimbene said. “It’s not something that’s going to be available when we first occupy the facilities. It may not be available for the season, but we’re going to install the netting.”
While both complexes are unfinished, the softball team seems very happy with how their new complex looks, the baseball team has had some complaints—starting with the home dugout. Salimbene told me he was unaware of the difference. He said he would have to look into that and determine if work needs to be done.
“I think I would need to investigate that to be able to answer the question as to whether there’s something planned to make them look similar,” Salimbene said
Another question baseball parents had was if there would be a window to watch the games in the concession stand as there was in the old complex.
“We’ve assessed that, and I really do need to communicate an update on those outstanding design issues to the community,” Salimbene said.
The softball complex was very similar, with the roof needing corrections before passing final inspections, electrical documentation needing to be corrected and resubmitted, and bleacher construction needing resubmission for approval of more concrete.
“Specifically for softball, we removed and replaced portions of the roof to allow inspection to occur, and the roofs have passed inspections,” Salimbene said. “We also resolved electrical system design concerns, and the softball electrical systems have passed inspections. We also resolved concerns about the bleachers anchoring, and the bleachers have passed inspections.”
With the electrical design concerns fixed and inspections done, the contractors could energize the baseball and softball buildings in order to complete all other inspections for the air conditioning, fire alarms, and more. All individual system inspections for softball have passed and were waiting on the final inspection on Wednesday, March 19, but the district had not announced final results by press time.
Like the baseball complex, Salimbene had high hopes that the softball complex would be finished by the end of spring break. Both complexes are waiting on the final building and site inspections scheduled for Wednesday, March 19, to establish that conditions have been met for safe occupancy.
One more thing that Salimbene and the contractors did was identify the need for accessible paths to the dugout and bleachers. He said there needed to be a means for people with disabilities to traverse the complex easily.
“Accessible paths, meaning for handicaps and events that at some point in time we have a coach or a parent with a disability that for whatever reason needed to access the facility, we needed an accessible path,” Salimbene said. “That path was designed, approved and constructed.”
