Ely school officials have to sharpen their pencils a bit to bring a sports facility improvement project within budget.
Both of the bids received by the Ely School District came in well over the $5.25 million budget in place for the project, which was spurred by an appropriation from state lawmakers.
One bid came in at just over $7 million while the apparent low bidder was Max Gray Construction, which submitted a bid of $6,547,000.
But given funds already set aside for engineering and other soft costs, and a desire to leave at least 10 percent in contingency, school officials may have to trim $2 million or more from the list of items on the bidding list.
The district’s facilities team met with Jason Chopp and other representatives of engineering firm Short, Elliot and Hendrickson on March 20, and another session is set for Monday in an attempt to come up with a list of improvements for authorization at an April 13 school board meeting.
As they have for several months, school officials reiterated at Monday’s board study session that the project can not go “a penny more” than what’s budgeted.
“We don’t have any more money to put into anything that goes over,” said superintendent Anne Oelke. “Right now SEH is in negotiations with the low bid, on understanding why some of the line items went way over. They line itemed everything out.”
Board member Tom Omerza agreed and said he would be hesitant to support any recommendation that didn’t leave enough funds available for contingencies or potential change orders.
”I see what we went through building this,” said Omerza, citing the $20 million- plus facilities project that included the new commons building and cafeteria. “And how many more million it cost more than we projected. To me we should come in well below five-anda- quarter (million) to allow for whatever, ledgerock, asbestos, whatever it happens to be. To me it’s coming in less and allowing for change orders,” The facilities group and Chopp began work on potentially removing items from the project and formal recommendations will come in time for board action in mid-April.
“Clearly we are over budget,” said Oelke. “Our goal is to make recommendations of what can be cut out of the project.”
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.
• 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.
• 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. Also included was a separate item for a standalone concession/ restroom building that could be used for both softball and baseball, with an estimated cost of $958,000;
• Softball Field - Site and field improvements to include new sod, new fencing and a new scoreboard as well as bleacher replacement.
• Memorial Gymnasium - Plaster repair and various improvements.
