The $9.8 million Cassville Performing Arts Center (PAC) will soon see red iron instead of red dirt, as progress on the facility is on track for its August completion.
Clint Walton, vice president of construction operations at RE Smith, updated the Cassville School Board on Thursday, explaining what has been completed and what is yet to come.
Site grading is finished, with no soil issues and reuse of on-site material, and all site utilities are complete up to the city of Cassville’s tie-in point and the fire hydrant installation.
All building foundations are complete, and only two of the five slab pours remain. RE Smith has poured the slab for the lobby and bathroom area, which Walton said was one of the best pours the company has ever done due to a light rain immediately after the pour.
Also completed are the pours for the auxiliary classroom and band and choir classrooms.
Walton said RE Smith still has to pour the top slab in the auditorium for telescopic seating, as well as the sloped slab for the auditorium’s fixed seating.
After a winter weather delay, slab re-prep is underway, and will take one work week to finish the pours.
Walton said all the pre-engineered metal building components and panels are on-site, set to go up about a week after the last slab pour.
Walton said according to the construction foreman, red iron for the building will go up in about three weeks.
The PAC is a 28,000-squarefoot facility with a maximum price tag of $9,865,987, funded largely by the passing of a $9.5 million bond issue in April 2023, with 63 percent of voters in favor.
Paragon Architecture is the district’s architect for the project, and R.E. Smith is the construction management company.
The facility will connect directly to the south 200 and 300 hallways of the existing high school. It will have 350 fixed seats in front of the stage, plus another 450 retractable seats behind those.
It will also include the choir room, band room and auxiliary room, giving a dedicated space to the fine arts department. There will not be a built-in concession stand, but there is an area that will allow for roll-in food service.
The exterior of the performing arts center will include a 100-plus space parking lot, which when combined with existing parking, could handle an 800-person event. The new lot will also be marked with football field hash marks to allow the band to practice on dry concrete instead of wet grass. Furthermore, there is potential to divide bus pickups from car pickups using the new lot.
A space on the west end of the building is also reserved for placement of graduate plaques currently displayed at the Rock Gym. An electric vehicle charger will also be installed, with capacity for more in the future should the need arise.
