Workers will be on campus at

McIntosh High by the end of the week to begin site preparation for rebuilding

the school's parking lots. By this time next week, backhoes may already

be tearing into the asphalt and concrete where students parked just days

ago.

Next door, workers at Holy

Trinity Catholic Church are scrambling to finish up an expansion of the

fellowship and education space that has tied up dozens of parking spots

for nearly a year. Holy Trinity has long relied on McIntosh's lots for

overflow, but during the most recent construction parishioners have used

the high school lot almost exclusively, nearly filling it up on some Sundays.

A new gymnasium to be built

next school year at McIntosh will occupy a third of the current student

lot. To ease the loss, the faculty and visitor lot will be expanded but

the school will still lose about 80 spots overall, said Mike Satterfield,

facilities services director for the Fayette County school district.

The work must be completed

may force an overlap with the Catholic congregation, Satterfield admitted,

but he's agreed to tear up the student lot in phases so some overflow

parking will be available for at least two more weeks, if needed.

"If we give them two more

weekends, they feel like they will have their parking lot done,"

Satterfield said.

No one from the church was

available to comment on Tuesday.

The church has relocated its

parish house to the back of the property, nearer the high school, and

has purchased a mostly vacant medical building on Prime Point, providing

both a back-exit from the church campus and additional parking.

Meanwhile, Satterfield said

he's still waiting confirmation from the state on just how much of a planned

$6.5 million budget outlay the county will receive, money to be used for

the McIntosh expansion as well as the addition of an auditorium at Sandy

Creek High.

It's frustrating, he admitted,

but just as well because the construction plans are still a few weeks

away from being completed. Once the money is in hand, or promised on paper

at least, Satterfield said the McIntosh project will commence with advertisement

for bids.

The Sandy Creek parking lot

will also require some redesign work, but since that school already has

a surplus of student parking, it wasn't deemed as vital to complete it

this summer. Instead, the entire Sandy Creek proposal will be bid sometime

in late summer or fall.

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