DINGMAN, PA — With a groundbreaking scheduled for this Friday, the Delaware Valley School District Board of Education on Thursday finished up approvals of the state’s paperwork for the long delayed Delaware Valley Elementary School project.

After years of controversy, the board approved project bids without discussion on March 19, some 10 years and two properties after DV took it on.

In an effort to replace the district’s oldest building, the school district in 2005 began negotiations to buy 118 acres of the Santos farm outside Milford. Before land prices plunged in the subsequent recession, they agreed on a $7 million purchase the following year.

But a Native American burial ground was found to exist on the property, and the project came to a halt.

Pike County acquired most of property in 2009 for open space preservation.

The school district moved its interest north along Route 6/209 in 2011, with the $1.75 million purchase of a new 40-acre site, from Joseph Biondo and CBH Holdings.

But, as planning went forward, the site’s proximity to a natural gas transmission line created safety concerns, controversy and enough opposition to force its abandonment.

Ironically, last Thursday’s agenda also included a resolution to extend Chant Realty’s sale listing of the site, which has become known as “the Biondo property.”

Last fall, the district acquired vacant property adjoining the Airport Park in Matamoras, which became the final school site. Plans drawn for the Biondo site were adapted to the Matamoras site and currently the $30 million project is expected to be completed for the opening of the 2015-16 school year.