WESTON -- What started as an idea to give students in Lewis County High School's Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) class some real life experience may end up saving the county's taxpayers nearly $10,000.
As part of a class project, four students in Tom Scott's CAD class volunteered to design building plans for the school's new football stadium's concessions building.
Seniors Andrew Brake, Wes Heater and Bryan Wymer along with junior Andrew Brake each produced separate floor plans for the building.
Scott brought them together and the five decided which parts of each drawing they would submit for the final plan.
"All four of these boys are second-year CAD students, but this is the first time we've given them a project of this magnitude to work on," Scott said. "All four of them submitted plans and we've combined the best aspects of each and submitted them to the county office."
County office supervisor Steve Casto was impressed with the students efforts. He gave the plans to the on-site contractor at the field to look over.
"They are in the process of viewing the plans now," Casto said. "After they make their recommendations, we plan to submit them to the school board."
While waiting, the quartet has turned its attention to the facilities building. They're drawing up plans for it also.
Brake says the experience of true-to-life planning has been unique.
"Because of all the building code requirements and other requirements, this was a real challenge for us," Brake, who plans to attend Glenville State College and major in Business Management, said. "Because of the limitations, our drawings were pretty similar so we didn't have a lot of changes.
"But it would be pretty neat to come back in 20 years and see a building I helped to design."
Sanders, who hopes to go into computer drafting after high school, agreed with Brake's assessment.
"This was like nothing we've ever done before and it was a pretty big challenge," he said. "We've done floor plan drawings before, but not any someone was actually going to build off of."
Casto credited Scott for his efforts.
"My son went through those classes and he's now in architectural landscaping at WVU," casto said. "He's used a great deal of what he learned in those classes."
Richard Messenger, principal at LCHS, believes the class is a real boon to the school.
"Classes like those give students a chance to experience real-life work situations and that's advantageous for them when they go on to college or out in the workplace," Messenger said. "We've got some other projects that students from that class are working on, including the revising of a classroom so we can put a small television studio in it."
If approved by the Lewis County Board of Education, the concession stand drawings will save a significant amount of tax payers money.
"It would eliminate the services of an architectural firm," Casto said. "We pay them x-amount for the plans and then also a fee for supervising the project.
"Realistically, this could save anywhere from $10,000-to-$15,000."
Sports writer Greg Talkington can be reached at 626-1444.
