Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Adjustments and a new time frame are taking effect for the Colfax School District’s security and capital improvement project after initial bids came back over estimates last month.
Colfax Superintendent Michael Morgan met with the project’s architect, Laurence Rose of Design West, in Pullman July 9 to finalize plans for what will be a re-bidding process.
In June, the initial bids for the project came in at $288,000 and $293,000. Voters earlier this year approved a $250,000 special levy to fund the project.
Morgan said that a key reason for the higher than expected numbers was that the initial plan for steel doors had been changed on advice from Design West to go with aluminum storefront framing doors. It turned out that the cost of aluminum has increased and the windows required with it are also more expensive.
The decision has since been made to return to steel doors.
“Other than that we’ve stayed pretty much firm with what we’re doing,” said Morgan.
Aside from the doors, Morgan said two other factors contributed to the high bids. One is the time frame. Since the district asked for bids for work to be done this summer, contractors concluded they would need to hire extra workers during the busy summer season. Second, the electrical estimates were higher because Morgan believes a lot of guesswork went into it.
For the new bids, the electrical work has been more detailed by Design West.
“We just didn’t see the high cost of the electrical in the project,” said Morgan.
While the two contractors who submitted bids, Dennis Cleavenger Construction with $288,000, and M.E. Uphus Construction with $293,000, both of Spokane, came to visit the site, their electrical subcontractors did not.
The Colfax district expected electrical costs to run about $20,000. Instead the bids included almost $70,000 for electrical work.
As a result, the new bidding process will ask for completion of the work by mid-November, allowing for weekends and evening work and potentially during school hours if it does not interfere with school instruction.
“That gives contractors and sub-contractors a lot more time to think about when they can do it,” said Morgan.
The superintendent said he hopes the new bids will begin listing this week.
They will not include the estimated $14,000 concrete sidewalk repair work in front of Jennings Elementary, which will be moved to next summer, along with the $10,000 estimated for security cameras, which were already slated for that time.
“What we needed was the construction to be around $220,000,” Morgan said.
With 10 days of bid time listing required, Morgan said the school board will need to call a special session sometime after their July 29 and before their Aug. 26 meetings to award a new bid.
Since the sidewalk part of the project has been delayed, the district may be eligible for an OSPI annual emergency repair grant. This is possible because a grant cannot be applied for on a project under construction.
While the funds to pay for the total project won’t be collected until next spring, Morgan said the district has a plan to cover the expense until then.
If needed, an inter-fund loan could be taken out of its reserve fund (now $308,000) and directed to capital projects, which now has an $85,000 balance.
According to district rules, borrowing money from reserves would require the funds to be paid back with interest.
“We’re pretty sure we can cover it internally,” Morgan said
Part of the reserves fund includes $165,000 in money set aside for re-roofing the main roof at Jennings, which has a 30-year roof installed in 1992.
The interest rate would be deemed by the local government investment pool, according to district Business Manager Reece Jenkin.
“It’s a very, very tiny interest rate,” he said.
All told, Morgan expects the original bidders to re-bid the project, and he said the changes will alter the original intent.
“It’s still the quality standard that we thought we would be at,” said Morgan.
If the bids come back too high once again, there are further options the superintendent and other school officials have discussed.
One is reducing the number of $3,000 to $4,000 electronic locks from nine to less. Another is to cut out the cameras all together and hope to find grants for them. Another is to postpone the sidewalk further.
“None of these options we want. We’re just thinking ahead,” Morgan said.
In addition to a more detailed explanation of the electrical work in the new call for bids, Morgan said there is also an option of some of the wiring work done in-house by the district.
For the low-voltage wiring and relay switches, Morgan indicated that he and Technology Director Tony Lewis could perform the work.
Morgan is a former teacher of construction management and building management.
“The reality of this whole project is that it is an extremely fast pace,” said Morgan. “The levy passed in April and we just got a little too aggressive with the timeline and needed to back off.”
The end result will include all of the levy’s original intention, he said.
“We’re not decreasing the scope, we’re just extending the timeframe, hoping that it saves us some money,” Morgan said.
As far as the aluminum vs. steel doors, Morgan indicated the new request for bids will include the aluminum doors for the front entry and gym entry, while the other doors will be steel. The aluminum doors, while more expensive – along with their accompanying windows – take less time to be made, are easier to install and come in pieces. The steel doors arrive as one unit.
“The general feeling was that either one was more than adequate for the project,” said Morgan.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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