MEXICO – An open house at the renovated Region 9 School of Applied Technology will give people an opportunity to see the $4.9 million project on Jan. 8

The school, with more than 24,000 square feet of new space, has been open since the start of the school year, but its governing board wanted to wait until everything was complete before showing it to the general public.

“A lot of people have been in, but we want more. Please come visit, please come see what’s happening,” school director Brenda Gammon said Monday afternoon.

In addition to a ribbon-cutting around 1 p.m. with speakers and thank-yous to contractors and the community, visitors will be asked to add to the school’s timeline from its beginning as the Northern Oxford Vocational Area in 1973. People will be supplied with pencils to fill in information, Gammon said.

Students in the adult and community education program’s enrichment classes will display handmade quilts and other items created during their classes.

Students in Skills U.S.A. will provide tours for people who want to see everything, from the automotive and early childhood development programs, to the refurbished bays for the forestry, metal trades, buildings trades and other programs.

A slide show of the construction and renovation project is expected to be shown in the cafeteria during the open house.

The open house program will have a diagram of the building’s layout and the bottled water served with light refreshments will have the Region 9 insignia on its label.

The delay in scheduling the open house was caused particularly by problems surrounding the new electrical system, Gammon said.

She said change orders were implemented to better address the need for electrical wiring sturdy enough to handle vocational program uses.

Noise issues also had to be resolved, and sometimes, communication with the architect and engineers wasn’t as clear as it could have been, she said.

Despite the problems, the project came in at budget and classes began on schedule at the end of August.