The McCall-Donnelly Board of Trustees awarded last week contracts for the bulk of elementary school construction projects in Donnelly and McCall.
The contracts set into motion work that will see the building of a new elementary school next to Payette Lakes Middle School in McCall and expansion of Donnelly Elementary School.
Overall, total low bids matched budgets. About $12.2 million was budgeted for the projects compared to about $12 million in bids.
The price for building the new wing at Donnelly soared above the budgeted $1.6 million, with base bids adding up to $2.1 million.
Bids for the McCall school totaled about $9.9 million, coming in under the $10.6 million budget.
M-D is using the services of construction firm Petra Inc., to manage its projects rather than hiring a general contractor.
Contracts for fencing and excavation were handed out separately in April to allow site preparation to commence directly after snow melt.
M-D threw out both landscaping bids received, which ran over budget.
About $139,000 was marked for landscaping at McCall and about $13,962 at Donnelly, but Teufel Nursery bid $219,750 for McCall and $37,937 for Donnelly. Landscaping at both projects will be redesigned and bid again later.
Big-ticket items at McCall were wood framing, electrical work and drywall. A framing contract for about $1.5 million was awarded to Newby Construction Inc.
An electrical contract worth about $1.5 million went to Northwest Electrical Inc. M-D accepted abidof $975,846 fromCommercial Constructors Inc.
Trustees were confident budgetary problems were unlikely, so they voted 4-1 in a separate motion duringtheirApril25meeting to include three add-ons:
• Skylights for both projects.
• A system of interior illumination using reflected sunlight.
• A playfield at the new McCall elementary school.
The playfield earned the trustees' nod after they learned two-thirds of the cost was covered in the basic bids.
Trustees debated more than an hour over the skylights. Bids for 16 skylights at Donnelly and 45 skylights at McCall totaled $462,511. But there was no argument over the illumination system bid which was $152,728 for both schools.
Site work has begun work on the new McCall elementary school, and work on the Donnelly expansion should start in June.
A $28.5-million school bond voters passed in May 2006 is financing the work. The bond will also be used to renovate M-D high school with work likely starting next year.
Chairman Douglas MacNichol saw no reason for the skylights because they would only light the second floor of the McCall school and because classrooms would be fitted with the reflected lighting.
MacNichol hoped to head off a funding crisis should unforeseen expenses crop up during construction rather than dip into about $10.5 million earmarked for the high school remodel.
"I don't get what this ... is that we have to spend money," MacNichol said.
Financial buffers are available in the event of cost overruns, the majority of the five-person board
decided.
Trustees moved $800,000 from its general fund into its construction budget as a hedge against cost overruns.
Payments by Tamarack Resort for new students generated by the resort also could be used, as could about a million dollars in interest earned from bond investments.
MacNichol and Trustee Mary Hart butted heads over the skylights, the most expensive of the alternate bid items, for the same reason - keeping promises to voters.
MacNichol wanted to avoid explaining to voters about dipping into high school remodel money, while Hart argued voters were sold the bond based on environmentally friendly engineering.
Trustee Betty Weida proposed using skylights over the multipurpose room and library only at the new McCall school as a money saver.
Trustee Neal Thompson questioned their addition because of future maintenance costs. But Weida and Thompson thought the gamble might work because of the district's financial buffers.
Skylights would be the most prominent and readily recognized "green" features at the schools but not the only ones.
Architects reminded trustees that a large number of environmentally friendly and performance enhancing items on their checklist had already been worked into schools' designs.
Those include paints and adhesives that do not emit toxic fumes, high-efficiency water heaters, programmable thermostats, glazed window glass, a ventilation system that economizes heating and cooling, and carpet made with recycled material.
Trustees learned that architects had changed cooling from air conditioning to an economizing ventilation system after they had come up with a cost-effective design.
