Contractors have been scrambling to finish work on the new bleachers at Waynesboro High School before the first home football game. In fact, contractors finished the work with one day to spare.
It marks the end of a project that was caught in the middle of funding squabbles between Waynesboro's school board and city council.
Thursday afternoon contractors from a Maryland firm installed the final steps on the visitors' bleachers. The larger, home-team side was completed on Monday and painted with the purple and gold of the Waynesboro Little Giants.
The old bleachers had served the high school since the 1950s, but last fall they failed a safety inspection.
Waynesboro Superintendent Robin Crowder said, "Could people still sit on the bleachers? They could, but the new safety standards are different than they were 60 years ago. And so it was time - and sometimes those things cost money."
Crowder says the price tag is $285,000 plus engineering and site-work expenses.
Delays in the project had forced Waynesboro High School to move its June graduation.
The new seating will get its first use on Friday night when the Waynesboro football team hosts Wilson Memorial. A dedication ceremony is tentatively set for October, during homecoming weekend.
