Site of the new high school gym.
The Dunklin R-5 School District has begun demolishing houses on property it owns as part of its new high school gym construction project.
The new gym, which will be built next to the Herculaneum High School theater, will be funded with revenue from a $13.5 million bond issue voters approved in April.
The Dunklin Board of Education awarded a contract to D R & J Trucking in De Soto to demolish the homes for $6,000 each.
“That was the low bid of three,” Superintendent Clint Freeman said.
He said the demolition began on Aug. 1 on the houses, which are located behind Herculaneum High School, 1 Black Cat Drive. The addresses of the houses are 293 Broadway and 299 Broadway.
The demolition was still underway on Tuesday but should be wrapped up soon, said Matt Lichtenstein, the district’s communications director. Freeman said recent wet weather has slowed the demolition work.
Once the houses are gone, the site work will continue, Lichtenstein said.
“They’ll be hauling away the house parts,” he said. “They also will be filling in the basement hole for future use as a parking lot for the gym.”
Lichtenstein said the site where the houses are being demolished will be a parking area for events at the new gym.
Freeman said district officials intend to bid out the gym construction project in December.
“It probably will be a $9 million to $10 million construction project,” he said. “Our target is to have it open in April 2025.”
Freeman said specifics for the gym construction are still being decided.
“It will be about a 700-seat gym,” Freeman said. “We don’t know yet about the square footage.
“We will continue to use the high school’s current gym. This will give us more room for more sports teams to operate at the same time.”
In addition to the new gym, revenue from the bond issue will be used to build more secure entryways at Pevely Elementary School and Senn-Thomas Middle School. The district’s other two schools, Herculaneum High School and Taylor Early Childhood Center, already had secure entryways.
“Our safe and secure entryways at Pevely Elementary and Senn-Thomas Middle School will go out to bid Aug. 8,” Freeman said.
Lichtenstein said the existing gym at the high school was built in 1964.