Hoover Middle School Eagle Scout Service Project

Project Summary

Mitchell Lewis is doing an Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project to re-landscape Hoover Middle School's East Patio. The patio is 155' x 31'. Hoover is an older school in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Mitchell hopes the project will result in a safer, low maintenance more attractive learning enviornment. This fall (2009) he is researching some landscape options and soliciting donations. By next winter and spring he expects to do the re-landscaping. Watch here for updates as the project progresses.

Donors

This project would not be possible without the many generous donations from local businesses and individuals. Donors have gone out of their way to help improve the school. Thank you for your support. Donors include:

Altor Construction (505-341-1551)
Buildology, Inc. (505-344-6626, http://www.buildologyinc.com/)
Albuquerque Public Schools Maintenance & Operations
Westwind Landscape Construction, Inc. (505-881-8925)
Neumark Irrigation Supply (505-345-7847, http://neumarkirrigation.com/)
Highland Rent All (505-293-4100, http://equipmentrentalnm.com/)
Sandia Laboratory Federal Credit Union (293-0500, http://www.slfcu.org/)
Karen Kubat Fitzpatrick (Harris Jewelers and Gemologists Casa de Oro Custom Design, 909 36th Pl. SE, Rio Rancho, NM 87124, 505-892-3841, http://www.harriscasadeoro.com/)
Applebees (Montgomery & Juan Tabo)

Volunteers

Equally important are the countless hours that troop, church, school, and community volunteers have spent on this project. I appreciate all you've done to keep this project moving forward and to make it a success. Volunteers include:

Plan

Schedule

Summer 2009: Plan the project, gain necessary approvals, begin interviewing experts
October 24, 2009: First workday to remove old material
Fall & Winter 2009-2010: Estimate costs and solicit donations
December 21-23, 2009: Re-pave sidewalks
January 9, 2010: Install irrigation system
January 16, 2010: Apply 40 tons of crusher fines

Before Pictures

The patio is enclosed by classrooms and a hallway in the main building. This is a view facing east.

A view facing west. At the west end of the patio there is hallway to the main part of the school. The hallway has large windows that overlook the patio.

These posts and brackets represent a safety hazard. There are over 30 of them throughout the patio. I plan to remove them.

There is an old fountain on the west end of the patio filled in with dirt. I plan to remove or cover over the pond.

I am planning to remove the windmill and old railroad ties too.

I am planning to replace the old benches with new tables. If all goes as planned I would also like to replace the deteriorating asphalt sidewalks.

I am planning to remove the old brick work around the tree. There are three existing trees in the patio. There is no irrigation. The only moisture they receive is from rain and snowfall.
I hope to add irrigation.

Executing Project

We had another amazing turnout of volunteers on January 16, 2010. We decided to take advantage of the long weekend as school was out on Monday for Martin Luther King weekend. This time we not only had volunteers show up from the local troop and church, but volunteers from school, my dad's work, and elsewhere helped out.

We kept the larger skid loader out front with the material. Wheelbarrows would line up in a row and skid loader would dump its load and fill them all quickly. M&O taught us that trick.

Two skid loaders, with experienced drivers, showed up. The first one was too big to fit into the patio. Fortunately, this smaller one showed up and could fit. It was wonderful to help finish grading a couple of the frozen areas and quickly moved crusher fine.

This team was really efficient in laying filter fabric.

We had so many volunteers that we had a constant flow of wheelbarrows. It was hard keeping ahead of them preparing the filter fabric. What I thought would take all weekend only took about 2-1/2 hours to complete. Everyone was ready to leave by lunch time. We had to beg them to stick around to eat the food that was on the way.

Here's a volunteer working with the plants. Westwind Landscape Construction donated all the plants (about 25). They also were critical in providing consulting along the way. Thank you Westwind.

Buildology, Inc. donated approximately 40 tons of crusher fine. On January 15, 2010 we roped off a section of the parking lot at Hoover early in the morning to stage the crusher fine. Later that morning a couple of trucks dumped the material. Here I am unloading the filter fabric which Buildology also helped get donated. Thank you Buildology!

We didn't waste any time after Christmas break. On January 9, 2010 we installed an irrigation system. Here's a picture of me with Joe Russell and Leonard Mendoza from APS Maintenance & Operations. They were critical in guiding the work of volunteers so we could meet APS's exacting standards. They're great guys to work with. APS also donated most of the irrigation parts. Thank you Joe and Leonard--we couldn't have done it without your help!

We had a wonderful turnout of volunteers on 1/9. A group of us stayed until 11:00 p.m. completing the irrigation system so we could bury the trenches before school on Monday.

Leonard teaching me how to operate the trencher.

Volunteers backfilling the trenches.

Joe installing the lateral line.

Neumark Irrigation Supply donated the irrigation valve assembly and controller. Thank you Neumark!

A volunteer assembling the risers.

The pond giving us fits again. We had to chisel through a couple of sections to run the irrigation line. I have a better appreciation for the pond now that I understand more of its history. About 14 years ago (as old as me) this patio used to be covered in concrete. There was a landscaping class tought at the school that ripped out the concrete. They installed the pond for a project. What's funny is that one of our first ideas was to re-pave the patio in concrete so it would look like the others and be easier to maintain. M&O helped talk us out of it.

One of the first things we had to do on 1/9 was try to find the sleeves that ran under the newly paved sidewalks. We were worried at first that we wouldn't find them, but once we found a couple of them it became easier. Fortunately we found most before the trencher arrived.

Over Christmas break Altor Construction did an amazing job repaving the sidewalks. It really looks nice. This really helped provide some needed momentum to the project. It is a tight squeeze to get a skid loader in the patio.

The school is really doing a nice job making the school look better. Notice that since the first workday in October and these pictures in December the columns and doors are repainted. The trashcan is also new. Marroon and silver are the school colors.

Our first workday was held 10/24/09. We pretty much removed all the unwanted material such as posts, old benches, parts of the fountain, bricks, windmill, etc.

This picture shows a volunteer hard at work in front of the window and hallway on the west side of the patio. The window overlooks the patio facing east.

The old fountain was built to withstand a nuclear detination. We were able to knock it down a bit with a jackhammer, but it will take some heavy machinery to remove it completely.