• Sycamore Academy Groundbreaking

A beautiful morning for a groundbreaking

In total there were a little more than 30 people at the groundbreaking for Sycamore Academy's new campus. Among the people in attendance were the Mayor of Wildomar Ben Benoit, City Manager Gary Nordquist, City Planning Director Matt Bassi, Planning Commissioner Bobby Swann and City Clerk Debbie Lee.

Rounding out the A-Listers were the builder, the architect and keystone of it all, Barbara Hale - Director/Principal, who gave a brief speech before the ceremonial first shovel of dirt. Though the project had actually been started on Monday of this week.

Mayor Benoit speaking to the assembled gathering while Barbara Hale watches from off to his left (our right).

In this pic you see City Manager third from the left, and the City Planning Director is to the right of him.

Barbara Hale is 6th from the left (no hardhat) and the builder is 3rd from the right. (those are all that I can identify). 

Now the race is on. The goal is to have this school ready for this Fall's school year. It's going to be tight, but Hamel Construction has experience with building schools in the area and they are primed for the challenge of getting this project completed in the small window between now and September.

I had a chance to ask Grant Hamel of Hamel Construction a couple of questions about the time frame

It's going to be a fast pace. So hopefully things go well and we don't run into too many obstacles and we're going to give it our best shot.

When do you anticipate that you'll be putting the foundation in?

The foundation is about 30-45 days from now. We have to get water and sewer onsite; a lot of infrastructure. That's the thing, there is so much that goes underground that isn't seen. Once we get through that you start to see change everyday, but for now it's just moving dirt and digging holes.

This deep pit isn't for any olympic sized swimming pools... just getting the grading right.

Stay tuned for periodic updates as to the progress of this project.

Oh, and a hearty thank you for the refreshments. That was the first time I'd had coffee from a box... and it was delicious. After three cups I'm pretty much fueled up for the rest of the day too. ☺

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As we all know, it's easier to do trivial things that are urgent than it is to do important things that are not urgent, like thinking. And it's also easier to do little things we know we can do than to start on big things that we're not so sure about. — John Cleese

Here is a Wildomar Rap tip of the day... remember to get your free cup of coffee every time you go into the bank. That is if your bank is Chase located in the Stater Bros center.