DEADWOOD — After finding the funding, Lead-Deadwood School District officials approved air conditioning and electrical work for $178,300, bid alternates in the amount of $216,000, and a $17,410 change order on Phase 3B of the elementary school renovation project, Construction is expected to ramp up in June.
The Board of Education first approved proposals on a ductless mini-split A/C installation as part of Phase 3B work.
School District Superintendent Dr. Erik Person said three bids were received on this portion of the project: Rasmussen Mechanical, $178,300; MAC Construction, $218,315;One-Way Service Pros $168,195.
Person said he and Transportation and Building Maintenance Supervisor Bill Snow followed up on the proposals with the bidders.
“We are recommending that we, rather than take the low bid, go with Rasmussen Mechanical and the reason for that was because the other lower bidder was not able to state they could meet the timeline that was in the RFP,” Person said. “That was really the main thing it came down to.”
Talk then turned to bid alternates that were set aside for further consideration when the $2.74 million project bid was awarded in December, 2021.
“If you recall, when we first did bids, we were $1 million off,” Person said. “Got to find a million dollars, somehow. We feel like we’ve found the million dollars, and were also able to make some room that we could approve all of the alternates. One of the alternates that we approved with the original bid was the dishwasher. That was already in there, but the rest are, basically, the updated finishes. And that’s really nice we’re able to do that because it would be kind of a bummer to do this big project and then still have a few of our classrooms that aren’t quite at the same level as everything else. So it will give everything else a nice fresh look.”
The bid alternates approved are as follows:update finishes in six second-floor classrooms, $59,000; update finishes in second floor bathroom, $34,000; update finishes in five classrooms, $37,000; update finishes in second-floor corridor, $58,000.
Person said currently, the project sits at around a $100,000 surplus.
“That’s not taking into account a $200,000, roughly, in contingency, which we’re hoping to not spend, but there will be things that come up,” Person said. “It’s our goal to end this project with a little bit of surplus there, so we’re on track for that, even with these alternates.”
A change order for a net of an additional $17,410 on Phase 3B was also approved by the school board.
“Approximately $20,426 was money that we would save in having MAC Construction self-perform the drywall work, rather than subbing it out and that’s offset and then some, by the Davis Bacon act and that was $37,836 and that’s where we used those federal dollars, the ESSR money, which is basically paying a prevailing wage for the area and is quite a bit higher than a lot of people typically pay,” Person said. “So just to meet those federal requirements, it adds cost to the project, but that’s more than offset by the fact that we’re able to leverage those federal dollars.”
Snow said the downside to the drywall is that it might add a few extra weeks to the project.
The district rebid the Phase 3B project after rejecting all bids in November 2021, as the lowest bid of $3,178,000 was approximately $1 million over the $2.1 million engineer’s estimate on the project, which was budgeted at $2.6 million.
With a bid of $2,737,000, the low base bid was awarded to MAC Construction, along with a $28,000 dishwasher alternate, for a total of $2,765,000.
In November 2020, the Board of Education adopted a resolution to finance $3.1 million of the $4.1 million Phase 3 facilities update with capital outlay certificates at an interest rate of 1.44%.
Phase one work involved installation of a high school elevator, tuckpointing at the high school and elementary schools, and two retaining walls at the elementary school at a cost of $1.3 million.
Phase 2A work consisted of renovating third and fourth floor classrooms and bathrooms, as well as the installation of a rooftop air conditioning unit and making the auditorium handicap accessible at a cost of $3.4 million.
Phase 2B entailed renovating the second floor and moving the school offices from second floor at the top of the stairs to the building, to the first floor, just off the lunchroom, at street level, at a cost of $2.1 million.
Phase 3A, a second-floor restroom renovation was budgeted at $218,282.
Phase 3B consists of a kitchen and cafeteria remodel and classroom renovations.
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