Press Release
October 27, 2005
Necia P. Seamons

Members of the Oneida Stake Academy Foundation (OSAF) continue to collect funds granted to the restoration of the Oneida Stake Academy. At the same time restorative construction proceeds on the 115-year-old school.

Months of planning and effort to obtain easements for power and telephone service to the academy have finally concluded with a decision to run utilities in the public easement along Oneida. Scott Rawlings has been hired to install power and telephone service to the building. On site work began last week.

Rawlings expects the power to be to the building by the end of this week.

In addition to installation of power to the building, the OSAF and Mormon Historic Sites Foundation (MHSF) intend to contract with Keith McKay, stone mason over the construction of the Nauvoo Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to repair and replace the stonework as needed on the academy.

McKay spent months obtaining permission to extract the stone he needs for the project from the original quarry, which lies east of Franklin.

Permission was finally granted from the Stockdale Family Trust, which owns the land, and the required state agencies last week.

McKay, whose operations are located throughout the west, will quarry all the stone needed for the complete restoration of the academy in the next few weeks. The stone will be stored at his operation in Murray, or carved at his plant in Torrey, Utah, until it is needed.

His first efforts will be to repair the broken corner on the academy’s southeast corner. When that is done, seismic upgrading will begin, said project architect, Joseph Linton.

Structural Solutions, of Logan, Utah, has engineered a plan to upgrade the seismic capabilities of the academy. A-Core, Inc., which is presently doing the core drilling on the Salt Lake Tabernacle and the Utah State Capitol, will core drill the walls and fill them with the rebar and grout, as soon as the stonework is finished.

As funds come in, McKay will also face the academy’s concrete foundation with stone and replace the parapets that originally lined the building’s roofline.

Although most grants and donations have been collected, significant amounts have not been released to the OSAF and MHSF, which has halted progress on the academy. OSAF board members hope to have those funds collected soon.

The board was recently notified that the project is under consideration for almost $500,000 in additional grant monies. Final notification is expected in November.