It may take just a bit longer for the Ely School District to award bids for a $5.25 million athletic facility project.
School officials are still scrambling to cut more than $2 million from the project, after bids came in higher than anticipated.
The district’s facilities committee met with Jason Chopp and other representatives of engineering firm Short, Elliot and Hendrickson on Tuesday, but more work is needed before the group will have a recommendation for school board action.
It’s not clear if that work will be done by the board’s April 13 meeting, but school officials said this week that they want to move forward by the end of the month in order to keep the project on schedule and allow for construction to begin this year.
But first, they must settle on what will be trimmed from the project.
Once engineering and architectural fees are set aside and a 10 percent contingency fund is included in the budget, the district has roughly $4.1 million available for construction, while low bidder Max Gray Construction submitted a bid of $6,547,000.
The facilities committee has reached consensus on trimming about $450,000 for painting the football stadium grandstand, and another $290,000 for new sod and other improvements to the football field.
SEH and the low bidder have also identified about $270,000 in other cost savings related to other components of the project, including a new viewing deck at the baseball field.
But that still leaves well over $1 million that must be cut to bring the project within budget, and SEH and the low bidder are expected to gather more information.
Among the options floated this week include eliminating a proposed new concession stand/restroom building that would go between the baseball and softball fields, as well as savings related to new plaster in the high school gymnasium, and potential cuts in improvements to the ice arena now pegged at just over $2 million, or about half of the available budget.
Chopp is expected to present revised numbers yet this month, and the board could award the bids at a special meeting.
Given tight budget constraints, board members have indicated that there’s no wiggle room and that the project must stay within the $5.25 million budget.
Thanks to legislative action in 2024, the school has $5.25 million to spend to improve its athletic facilities and a district committee, with the help SEH, had come up with an assortment of projects at the campus football, baseball and softball fields, ice arena and gymnasium.
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.
As currently proposed, the project would touch all of the school’s athletic facilities, with major exterior building improvements to the ice arena, upgrades to the football field including handicap accessibility to the grandstand, new seating and press box, as well as upgrades for track team practices.
At the baseball field, there would be upgrades including leveling and new sod for the playing surface, and a paved pavilion and viewing deck on the first base side.
Ely’s softball field would get new sod, fencing, a scoreboard and bleacher replacement, while the gymnasium is in store for plaster repair and other upgrades.
In late-2024, SEH conducted an athletic facilities needs assessment that identified over $15 million in potential or recommended improvements to Ely school athletic facilities.
But at least for now, the district only has $5.25 million in available funds to address those proposals.
