A spokesman for Baileyton-based Carter Contractors, LLC, said on Tuesday that the company had finished demolition of Ottway Elementary School's cafeteria and kitchen and had hauled away all the debris.

In late May, Carter Contractors had submitted a low base bid of $16,625 for the demolition phase of the Ottway project.

"We finished this morning," the Carter Contractors spokesman said.

During a Tuesday morning visit to the school along Ottway Road, a Greeneville Sun reporter and photographer found the cafeteria site cleared and a barrier of black plastic covering what would otherwise have been an opening into the school building.

The Greene County Board of Education, during its Thursday, June 26, meeting approved a low bid of $608,100 from Morristown-based EverHunt Builders Group for construction of a new cafeteria and kitchen complex at Ottway Elementary School.

The Greene County Board of Education voted on March 20 to demolish the Ottway School's cafeteria and kitchen and replace them with a new facility.

The unanimous action came on a motion from board member Richard Morrison, who cited concerns about student safety as justification for favoring construction of a new facility over an attempt to repair the nearly 50-year-old cafeteria's deteriorating concrete block walls.

During discussion, Morrison told his fellow board members that he would vote for nothing less than a new Ottway cafeteria and kitchen. He also told board members that their "first duty" was to ensure the safety of students.

After the March meeting, Dr. Joe Parkins, Greene County director of schools, said he hoped the existing cafeteria and kitchen would be demolished and a new "metal-frame" cafeteria and kitchen addition built for about $400,000.

Parkins said that the metal-frame cafeteria and kitchen he envisions would be similar in construction to the metal-frame gymnasiums added to county elementary schools in 1998 and to the metal-frame agriculture shop completed last year at North Greene High School.

But he said he expects the new cafeteria and kitchen complex to be relatively simple to build because, like most cafeterias, it will be one large room, with the only interior walls being those that separate the dining area from the kitchen and storage areas.

He said the cafeteria and kitchen will have interior walls covered with sheetrock and also will have a suspended ceiling.

If the construction goes well, he said, the new facility could be completed by October.

Until the new cafeteria and kitchen are completed, Parkins said earlier, food will be prepared in the kitchen of the nearby Ottway Ruritan Club building and transported to Ottway Elementary School.