Three months ago residents in the Mandan School District approved a $17.6 million bond issue to build a new junior high and renovate Faris Field and Mandan High School. Although ground hasn't been broken yet for the projects, dirt will fly.

As soon as the bond issue passed, the Mandan School Board and school officials have been working with Al Fitter, who is the main architect for the school district, and engineers to move the projects forward.

The biggest project, the new junior high, isn't expected to be completed until the beginning of the 2008 school year. Land samples have been taken at Terra Valley to determine if the soil quality was good and if the land could support the weight of a new building and roads.

Terra Valley is the proposed site for the new junior high. It is located north of Interstate 94 and Old Red Trail, an extension off Sunset Avenue.

Mandan Superintendent Kent Hjelmstad said the soil samples came back positive and the soil composition is excellent for construction. The majority of the samples were mixtures of clay. Hjelmstad jokingly said there were no hidden treasures found and there is no quicksand or swamp land at Terra Valley.

By mid-August, engineers should complete surveying the land and have preliminary plats done. The school district will move forward with filing the papers for purchasing Terra Valley after the surveying and preliminary platting is done.

Work on Faris Field will be begin soon. The grandstand will be gutted and a new concession stand and bathrooms will be built. Hjelmstad said the renovations won't interfere with the 2005 football season.

On the east side of the field, new locker rooms will be built for men and women. In the center, dividing the two sets of locker rooms, will be an office for trainers and coaches to use. Faris Field is expected to be finished in fall 2006.

Work to be done at Mandan High School will have to wait until next summer. The school district is looking to pre-purchase windows to have on hand when the weather will permit the old windows to be replaced. Window replacement won't begin until the summer of 2006, and it will continue into the summer of 2007 or possibly 2008. During this time, the airflow system will be updated.

In 2007 the high school will be 50 years old, and Hjelmstad predicts the updates will allow the building to last many years.