The Park City School District is working on a $200,000 project on the home they purchased last year in Jeremy Ranch. The property was purchased to house the superintendent and her family who moved to Park City in 2018 to fill the open position.
An October 24 interview with the PCSD Business Administrator outlines planned driveway safety improvements to the home.
The school disrict reports the driveway and adjacent retaining walls are dangerous, and the district is obligated to ensure safety precautions are taken in all school district buildings.
Park City School District Superintendent Jill Gildea currently lives in the Jeremy Ranch home. The property was purchased as a district investment for $870,000 in 2018. It was leveraged as part of the compensation package the Board of Education used to attract a new superintendent. The driveway is steep, and Gildea says the build-up of snow and ice last year lasted until May. The project includes re-grading the driveway, repairing and installing retaining walls and laying conduit for heating.
“We have some shared ownership and shared interest in making sure it is the best environment for anybody who would live there. So, it will be nice to get ahead of some of that. But of course, I pay all the utilities on that so that would be something that if there is an increased cost, that, of course is my family that handles that.”
The work being done is addressing issues that were previously noted in the purchase agreement. Park City School District Business Administrator Todd Hauber says the scope of the $200,000 contract is to make access to the residence safer.
“The experience with that drive is such that we would redesign it in any case. And as we look at, even other houses on that street, a couple other houses have redesigned how they have their front entrance drives as well. So, we’re not out of the ordinary doing some curious project. It’s a fact we have access issues and we need to straighten those out.”
Hauber says if they left the driveway as it was, it would be a liability for the school district.
“There’s only so many ways you can get from that lower level to the upper level without having to redo the whole front. We take on all kinds of liability if we don’t do something about it because now, we know about it as a public facility, there are standards that we have to bring it to. So now we’re just doing what we’ve got to do.”
Park City Board of Education President Andrew Caplan considers it the responsibility of the school district to protect their investment.
“Yeah, it’s our building and you know we repair and maintain all of our facilities including that one and make sure that it’s kept up to date, so it retains its value.”
Hauber says the project was supposed to be finished this summer, and he is hopeful it will be finished before snow comes to the area. The project, he says, is right on budget.
