It took longer than Palmerton Area School District expected, but a Seventh Street fieldhouse damaged in a crash last year finally has a demolition date.

District Facilities Director Joe Faenza said crews expect to begin demolishing the building, which had been used by the Palmerton Booster Club, on Aug. 15 and finish within three days.

“The power was finally disconnected in the fieldhouse on July 11 so we can move forward,” Faenza said. “It took seven weeks from the date of our request to get the power shut down.”

When the crash occurred in May 2021, Francis Botek, 81, of Lehighton, was traveling east on Delaware and wanted to make a U-turn to go west, but according to police, his gas pedal became stuck. The vehicle traveled across Delaware Avenue into the field house.

Palmerton awarded a contract in April to low bidder Environmental Restoration Inc for $21,190, to tear down the building.

The scope of work includes the removal of the approximately 2,000-square-foot field house including the floor slab and frost footings to a foot below the existing slab elevations.

Material will be removed and hauled to a landfill dumpsite.

The district received $98,000 through an insurance claim following the crash.

The board, also in April, approved the purchase of a 24-by-28-foot two-car garage and a 10-by-12-foot mini-barn from Kramer Sheds for placement to replace the fieldhouse at a total cost of $20,303.

Bruce George Paving and Excavating recently began a tennis court resurfacing project at the high school.

The project calls for the company to mill existing cracks at the courts and put in a new wearing base.

“They should be finished by the middle of August,” Faenza said. “They’re doing a great job. It’s a very clean work site and they’re really protecting the grounds well out there.”

Palmerton awarded the work to Bruce George in June at a cost of $174,668.36 and added $25,000 to it Tuesday night, which will go toward replacing the existing fence with a new metal, vinyl-coated one.

“Service Team is actually going to be the ones doing the work and we think that’s a very reasonable price,” Faenza said. “That’s a specialty fence made for tennis courts.”

In another district project, Palmerton added $30,000 on Tuesday night to the cost of replacing two of its three elevators across the district, one at S.S. Palmer and another in the junior high school.

Faenza said a field survey uncovered a bad power supply unit at S.S. Palmer, raising the total cost of the project to $157,115.

Thyssen Krupp Elevator Corporation was awarded the contract.

Earlier this year, Faenza said the main controllers, called Dover Microprocessor Controls, that operate the two elevators will be obsolete within two years, necessitating the modernization.