Parkway Dedication

Parkway Dedication of the New Facilities

The ceremony for the dedication of the newest school in the State of Ohio ~ Parkway Local School District ~ went without a hitch on Sunday, June 4, 2006 at 1:30 pm. Gathered in the "Spectator Gym", the crowd had their first glimpses of the building that has been in the works and under construction for over 6 years.

The $7 million project, under 5 acres, funded by the School Facilities Commission and a local building levy, was commended by Ohio Governor Robert Taft and State Representative Keith Faber as a state-of-the-art facility. Taft told the crowd that they had undertaken a great project to give the children of the Parkway District a good, safe, modern school building . . . "a better place to learn". He recognized the principals, teachers and staff for working with students to raise their proficiency test scores to an effective rating ~ for the focus on academic achievement. Taft said, " The Parkway community's initiative sets an example for other communities."

The ceremony moved then to the ribbon cutting ceremony where young Preston Stober, son of Trey and Tafani (Glosette) Stober of Rockford did the honors as representative of his Class of 2019.

The fitting finish was the singing of the Parkway Panther Fight Song with everyone raising a loud cheer at the end!

PWI Editor's Note: There will be more pictures coming, as well as, building trivia, and comments. So visit back!

Flag of the State of Ohio presented to Karst by Governor Taft. State Representative Keith Faber assists.	It is a standing ovation for the band and choir after a patriotic mix and a big compliment from Governor Taft on how he thought he was listening to OSU for a moment . . . .	The singing of the National Anthem under the flag brought from the old gymnasium at the high school	Superintendent Doug Karst welcomes all.	Art teacher and head football coach, Ed Kuhn, gives the invocation.
The new auditorium, complete with orchestra pit.	Kami Adams and Eric Shrider (both Class of 2007) watch with Governor Taft as Preston Stober (Class of 2019) cuts the ribbon.		Board President Dana Smith of Willshire, does the closing remarks.	Classroom
One of two state-of-the-art library-media centers.
Thank you to Nikki Fox for these great shots.

Parkway Graduate Contributes to the Design of His New Alma-Mater

Eric Baltzell, 1990 graduate of Parkway High School is an electrical engineer and partner at Garmann/Miller Architects-Engineers in Minster, Ohio, the company selected for the planning and execution of building Parkway School District's new PK-12 school which opened last fall 2006.

Eric's role was to design all of the electrical and technology systems. This included all power systems, lighting, fire alarm, security system, access control system, sound systems, telephone system, video system, and computer networking. His professional credentials include: Professional Engineer for the State of Ohio, BICSI - RCDD, BICSI - NTS Specialist, and a member of these engineering professional organizations: NSPE, IESNA, IEEE, BICSI

With roughly 240,000 square feet (which is over twice as large as the old high school building) Garmann/Miller Architects-Engineers had approximately two years of planning, one year of design and two years of construction to see this project come to fruition.

They assisted the school district with the bond issue campaign and master planning, then they designed the building

and followed the job through construction.

The total project cost was $36 million, according to Eric who shares these interesting statistics:

Over 1,000 anchor bolts

Almost 800 tons of structural steel

Over 340,000 brick

Over 250,000 SQFT of metal roof - this equates to over 2,500 squares

Over 50 projection screens

Over 400,000 SQFT of asphalt

Over 1,000,000 SQFT of grass seeding

Almost 500 doors

Approx. 4,800,000 LF of electrical wiring = 909 miles

Approx. 350,000 LF of technology wiring = 66 miles

Eric has been with Garmann/Miller Architects-Engineers for six years, where the firm designs all types of commercial office buildings, schools, municipal, industrial and healthcare buildings. After graduating from Parkway, Eric continued his education at the University of Toledo from which he graduated in 1994.

Eric's design experience includes working in Columbus, right out of college, for Korda/Nemeth Engineering,

followed by 5 years at Fanning/Howey in Celina before making the move to Garmann/Miller. His hobbies are golfing, weightlifting and spending time with his many friends and family. But, he agrees that his work is a passion with him, "There is much satisfaction in helping people to design and construct their vision," says Eric.

Eric invites you to click on the link for the Garmann/Miller Architects-Engineers' website at www.garmannmiller.com and click on the Education link. From there you can view their work on the Parkway School Project. You can also learn what other projects they are working on as well.