FORKS — This week will be the last chance Twilight fans will have to visit the oldest section of Forks High School before the building is torn down to make way for new construction.
Work has already begun on the other portions of the high school that will be demolished, with the first being the 1956 building which went down beginning June 16, said project manager Kasey Wyatt.
Wyatt estimated that the 1925 portion of the high school at 191 S. Spartan Ave., would be demolished beginning Monday or Tuesday.
That part of the school was made famous in the Twilight saga — a fictional vampire series of four novels that has main characters Bella Swan and Edward Cullen meeting and falling in love there.
The high school, with its sign, is a popular place for fans to take photographs.
Marcia Bingham, executive director of the Forks Chamber of Commerce, said fans have been interested in the news of the demolition, but not upset.
“They all know that even though that building has to come down, we have to have a high school that works, that the power works and has electricity and heat,” she said.
The construction of new buildings to replace the condemned portions of the school is expected to be completed by fall 2011.
Workers already have begun saving parts of the 1925 building, Bingham said.
The goal is to recycle 50 percent of the building, she added.
“Right now they are doing selective salvage,” Wyatt said.
“They are taking down interior items and removing any interior metals that aren’t structural.”
Voters in the school district approved an $11 million construction bond issue in February for the high school.
District officials also expect to get about $7 million in state funding.
The tax rate set by the bond is about $1.18 per $1,000 assessed valuation.
That means the owner of a $200,000 home will pay an additional $236 annually in property tax.
__________
Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.