Elementary cafeteria is being demolished after rain storm

BELEN — Demolition in underway on part of a local elementary after a roof collapse during a torrential downpour in June.

During a downpour on the afternoon of Tuesday, June 24, part of the cafeteria roof at Dennis Chavez Elementary — the former H.T. Jaramillo campus on Esperanza Drive in Belen — collapsed. After an assessment of the building, it was determined that while the dining hall was a loss, the kitchen was salvageable.

“I’m excited to announce they actually started the demolition on (Aug. 14),” said Belen Consolidated Schools Superintendent Lawrence Sanchez during an interview on Aug. 15. “Essentially, they are cutting the dining hall away from the kitchen.”

Since the work is happening while students are on campus, Sanchez said a great deal of precautions are being taken to make sure there’s no risk to them or further damage to the building.

“In the kitchen and headed along that wing its attached to, they have attached large timbers — kind of built a supporting wall — which is held up by hydraulic jacks. Instead of having individual points of support, they’ve built essentially a platform that goes underneath the trusses and supports the whole stretch,” Sanchez said.

On the east side of the dining hall, there is a wall shared with classrooms that, while they will remain empty, has also been shored up in a similar fashion to make sure there isn’t any sort of “domino effect,” the superintendent said.

The district has located two portable buildings for the campus to serve as a dining hall. Those are being renovated to be safety compliant, the superintendent said.

“The company that is moving those have come out to the site and marked up and planned where they will sit,” he said. “It should be about four or five weeks until those are on site. They have to wait to be brought in until the demolition is done and the utility connections have been done.

“Not only are we making sure they are up to safety standards but also that they are spruced up so we’re not just throwing students into dingy portables.”

The campus gymnasium is currently being used as the dining hall and meals are being brought in from Central Elementary.

“That has worked so far, but we’re very excited to be able to use our gym as our gym and to not have to truck in meals,” Sanchez said. “Considering all this happened just a couple days more than six weeks ago, it’s not bad. Not bad at all.”