Eddie Warren sounded cautiously optimistic Thursday about the new Richmond Hill Middle School opening on time.

“It’s still scheduled to open this coming fall,” said Warren, chairman of the Bryan County Board of Education. “But it’s too early to tell whether we’ll make that deadline or not.”

That’s because project officials are waiting on a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ permit to build an access road across wetlands to the school, which is off of Belfast River Road in South Bryan. Officials on Thursday did not have a definitive date on when the permit would be issued.

If the school is not opened on time, “We would continue as we are today” at the existing school, Warren said. “It would not be hard to move during the middle of the school year – during Christmas break – but it would be a lot easier in the middle of summer.”

Ground breaking for the $22 million school took place in July 2009. The facility is on a portion of a 98.5-acre site that was donated to the school board in late 2007 by TerraPointe, the real-estate arm of the Jacksonville-based forest products’ company Rayonier.

For more, pick up a copy of the March 12 edition of the News.