My supervisor recently told me that the company installing new windows at LaFollette Park had the time to complete their work extended to the end of the year. The original date of completion should have been the first of November.
The gym looks like a bomb went off inside. Not only have I continued to find the main door to the gym standing open every day, but the supply room has been left open a few times, too. Some equipment is missing, most notably one of the jump ropes, and all of the green hand wraps except for one. The installation company keeps tampering with the equipment and moving it around unnecessarily. Of course, with the door being open all day, there's the constant problem of kids and adults playing around on the equipment. The floor is badly scraped up, plaster keeps falling from the ceiling, and the walls have huge patches where the paint has worn away. The women's washroom is not in use at the moment. Several cans, usually full of debris, sit outside of the men's washroom.
The installation company never cleans up afterward. On top of that, the attendants at the field house don't always get around to cleaning the gym. Yesterday, Walz asked me if a group of teen girls could possibly use a corner of the gym to practice their dance routine. "Yeah, that is if they don't mind all the dirt and dust floating around in here," I replied.
Now that November has arrived again, the gym is mostly empty. Lael has gone back to only putting in two to three days a week. Even Henry and David have been missing days for one reason or another. Two new kids in the program -- George and DeMarius -- have already established that they can't train every day. George plays football. DeMarius lives far out in the suburbs and can't always make it in. Sahia, the volunteer, is still out due to situations that she needs to handle. Once the holiday season starts, most people disappear anyway, but the installation going on has hastened the exit of most.
The supervisor also told me the gym will have to be painted again. The window installers should do that since the damage in the gym was caused by them. But they got off the hook for that so the park district painters will be doing the job. The work order won't go in until early next year, and exactly when the work will happen is a mystery. I remember the last time the gym was painted, the job took two months to finish. All that time the gym was shut down. I expect the same thing will happen next year.
Situations just keep going from bad to worse at the gym. I can't wait for this fall session to end.
