District to Spend About $300,000 for Continued Construction Management

The Board of Education decided Wednesday to spend close to $300,000 to extend the contract of the company overseeing the high school gymnasium construction project and to have the firm start performing the same task for renovations at Valley Elementary School.

The school board also OK'd eight change orders totaling $153,850 for the new gym.

The district broke ground on the combination gym/community center in July 2009. The 45,000-square-foot facility is expected to be ready for use at the beginning of the next school year, this September.

The bids came in at $13.5 million and the district added $1 million for contingencies. The district has been planning to use about $10 million from a 2007 bond, $2 million from the township and a matching $2 million state grant.

Business director Jack Myers said Wednesday the project cost now stands at about $14.7 million. Questioned by board member Ralph Douglas, he said $600,000 to $700,000 is left in the contingency fund after the change orders.

Douglas said the change orders had been “thoroughly reviewed” to get them as low as possible. In some cases, Myers added, the change orders were negotiated. And he said he doesn't expect many more.

Following Wednesday's board action, Turner Construction will be paid an additional $298,600 for continued construction management of the gym project and the same task as the district undertakes a $6.4 million project to upgrade the heating/ventilation/air conditioning systems at Valley Elementary. Myers said the extension will last four months.

He explained to Patch that “soft costs” such as construction management and architectural fees are not included in the $14.7 million figure. He said the soft costs total about $1 million.

The new structure will be a three-court spectator gym with stands that can seat 1,700 people, along with an elevated track. It is attached to the high school, just behind one of the two existing gyms, which are about 40 years old and are not being renovated at this time.

The district has been using the gym at the former Armstrong Middle School, which was closed in 2005, for spectator sporting events. The district plans to sell that building.

The project at the Valley school, which is about 35 years old, will feature a geothermal well field outside the school. Myers previously explained that would comprise a series of about 100 wells, each 400 feet deep, through which water would be circulated to heat and cool the building using the earth’s temperature retention characteristics.

Myers has said the planned well field would pay for itself in savings in seven to 10 years.

Similar well fields are in place at the Cecelia Snyder Middle and Russell C. Struble Elementary schools.

The school board earlier this month approved three contracts totaling about $6.4 million for the project.

The funding, Myers has explained, will come from the district's capital reserve fund and a 2007 bond Issue.

The district hopes that work also can be completed by the beginning of the next school year.