Photo by Wyeth Talmon

After a long day of school, she received a text from a friend that something was wrong with her car again.

Harwood junior Maisie Frank has not had the best luck with the school’s parking lot. This past fall she walked out to her car at the end of the day to find a totally flat rear tire.

After it was towed away the mechanic found a large rock had punctured it. She didn’t think much of it, until two weeks ago. She got another text from a friend saying her rear tire was flat. Interestingly, it was the same cause as the last flat, a stone had gone right through.

Luckily Maisie didn’t have to pay any money to get both flats fixed. In fact, Harwood is the one who will be spending money to get things fixed.

With fading paint and potholes, the Harwood parking lot has seen many years of abuse but is finally getting a refresh as the school year comes to an end.

In recent years with the pandemic the supply chain slowed down, this put quite the damper on the plans Harwood had for the parking lot. With this lul there was a challenge getting paint with upped prices and not much of a selection of colors. So it was put on hold till fall. Finally, they had gotten a hold of yellow paint but no white paint. As the temps started to drop they struck some good luck and had both paints ready to go.

That good luck didn’t last too long, the company they planned to use said their machine was broken. After a few weeks, the white flakes of winter had started to fall. The project was on hold again till spring. The Luck of the Lot had struck again.

As the days warmed up, fresh paint was finally being sprayed in Harwood’s parking lot. On May Day, the lines of the senior section were painted. Sadly with the luck of Harwood’s lot, the paint crew had to call it quits for that weekend. Their line machine had blown a hose. The following weekend they were back at it, finishing the rest of the lot with fresh yellow paint.

Photo by Wyeth Talmon

Painting isn’t the only thing the lot needs. In an email with Ray Daigle (HUUSD Director of Facilities and Operations). I was informed that the last time the lot was fully repaved was in 1996. 27 years of weather and hundreds of thousands of cars haven’t been too kind. Large potholes have been an issue in the front lot where the most travel is. This wear and tear has caused water flow to erode the pavement even more. There have been plenty of patch jobs over the years, but the rapidly changing weather of Vermont caused the fresh asphalt to bend, crack, and change form.

Harwood has plans to fix the drainage problems in the near future as well as new lighting to give the school a more inviting look late at night, especially during evening events. The lot will need to be ripped up and repaved. As for now, the school will spend another $10,000 on patching this summer to smooth out the lot. With the luck of the lot, let’s hope this plan comes to fruition in the coming years.

I encourage you to comment after reading this with any suggestions and comments about the parking lot.