Building yet another home…

The current Bulldog Building Trades house is being built at 707 E. Lathem. It is one block away from the very first Building Trades house that Batavia High School students built almost twenty years ago.

Over the last fifteen years the Building Trades program built and sold fifteen profitable homes in Batavia. However, the recent decline in the housing market caused the last two homes to be sold at a loss. This led to some changes in the program.

Bringing the program back to where it was started allows for the construction of smaller homes because the lots are not as big and less expensive. Along with smaller homes come opportunities for the students to do more of the construction including drywall hanging, hardwood flooring, painting, and siding. This reduces use of subcontractors but more importantly it gives the Bulldog Building Trades students more opportunities for learning. With more of the construction being completed by the students, the time frame has been expanded to three semesters from the previous model of one house per school year. This fits nicely with our motto: “we do it right because we do it twice.”

The house being constructed at 707 Lathem is a two story custom home with 3 bedrooms and 2-½ baths. There is a full basement and a detached two car garage. A wrap-around porch gives this home a welcoming curb appeal. This house also features Pella windows and doors that have once again been donated at cost by the Pella Corporation. These windows along with a high efficiency furnace and blown-in cellulose insulation add to energy conservation. Please watch for open houses in May so the Bulldog Building Trades students can proudly show you their accomplishment.

Batavia Youth Baseball and BPS partner up

Batavia Youth Baseball (BYB) and Batavia Public School (BPS) partner up to create a new baseball diamond for both the School district to use and BYB to use. The new field comprises of a Major/Minor field that BYB has access to utilize and maintain during the Batavia baseball season beginning in 2010 for the next 20 years. BYB has graciously paid to construct the field. They will be in charge of general maintenance on the field while BPS will be in charge of the mowing.