Bid opening for the Ely School District’s athletic facility improvement project was pushed back two weeks.
Contractor questions related to project timelines prompted the move, giving engineers and school officials more time to answer and allowing contractors further time to submit bids.
That delayed plans to open bids Tuesday and instead pushes back bidding until March 10, with construction to begin as soon as April.
“We kind of ran into a bit of a snag,” said superintendent Anne Oelke. “Our timeline was pretty aggressive and all of our facilities have schedules, the baseball field and softball field and arena and football field and the gym. So we made a decision to extend the bidding for two more weeks so we can address some of the timeline issues because we’re not getting enough bids in.”
Thanks to legislative action, the school has $5.25 million to spend to improve its athletic facilities and a district committee, with the help of engineering firm Short, Elliot and Hendrickson, has come up with an assortment of projects at the campus football, baseball and softball fields, ice arena and gymnasium.
Jason Chopp, who is coordinating the project on behalf of engineering firm Short, Elliot and Hendrickson, briefed school board members Monday about the contractor questions and subsequent decision to extend the bidding timeline.
“Essentially there have been a handful of interested contractors on the project,” said Chopp. “In the middle of last week, Max Gray Construction sent me an email saying they were not going to bid the project citing scheduling issues, and then this afternoon another contractor said the same thing about schedule concerns.”
Chopp added that a contractor pulled out of the process because it wasn’t able to get a subcontractor to put together a price for a ceiling project in the high school gymnasium.
“I said ‘how can I get this to a position were you will bid and they’re going to provide me with some things that were hang ups,” said Chopp. “In the next few days we’ll reach out to contractors and find out what the concerns are and then meet with the (school) facilities team to find out if there’s some flexibility with scheduling.”
Chopp added that “maybe there’s one or more of those (construction) windows that were tight and were giving contractors concerns for risk.”
The concerns could prompt the school to loosen some of the restrictions, and might lead to delays that limit use of one or more of the district athletic facilities to allow more time for construction to be completed.
“We know there are interested companies, it’s just finding out what the hang up is right now,” said Chopp.
In the original bidding process, the district called for substantial completion in October with some components calling for an earlier date.
School officials have hoped that the football field would be ready in time for home games for the 2026 season, while the baseball field is currently set to be used until mid-July, then shut down for the rest of the summer.
Budget concerns were also on the minds of school board members Monday, with Tom Omerza citing the $5.25 million in available funds and pressing Chopp to make sure that the project stays within budget.
“We have a set amount of money,” said Omerza. “These contractors need to know that. The almighty change order can’t happen. If they say it’s $100,000 and come 80 percent into project that it’s 20 grand more, they’re the professionals they should come up with an accurate number. That message needs to be relayed.”
Current cost estimates put the work at $5.79 million, including a 10 percent contingency and $766,000 in “soft costs,” and school officials are hopeful that bids come in under those estimates.
The current list, which evolved from more than a year of discussion including input from stakeholders and review by the district’s facilities committee, includes:
• Ice Arena - Exterior building improvements to maintain the integrity of the facility as well as HVAC improvements and structural repairs. $1,669,000;
• Football Field - Field improvements to include the grass surface as well as upgrades for track team practice, grandstand improvements including new seating and press box and accessibility upgrades. $1,045,000;
• Baseball Field - Field improvements including leveling and new sod on the playing surface, grandstand improvements and replacing the first base bleacher area with a paved pavilion. $753,000. Also included was a separate item for a standalone concession/restroom building that could be used for both softball and baseball, at $958,000;
• Softball Field - Site and field improvements to include new sod, new fencing and a new scoreboard as well as bleacher replacement. $490,000;
• Memorial Gymnasium - Plaster repair and various improvements. $109,000.
