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070105 Shortfall doesn't stop construction
BY ABBY LUBY
Despite coming up $5 million short to start demolition and renovation at Fox Lane High School, the Bedford Central School District Board of Education awarded initial bids to get the job started.
"We decided to restructure the bid and go back out to award parts of the job and get the project started," said Mark Betz, assistant superintendent for business and administrative services. "That way we could try to bring down some of the costs. The longer we wait, the more it will cost us."
Bids for the demolition and the renovation of Fox Lane High School were awarded two weeks ago. The actual work is scheduled to begin in early summer. The district decided to reopen major parts of the project for rebidding after realizing that the $67.8 million bond approved in 2002 would not cover all the costs of the project. A new $5 million bond
to cover the shortfall is expected to be presented to Bedford voters in January. If voters approve more funds in a new bond vote, the total project is expected to cost $73,987,019.
The board hoped that the new bids would come in lower than the first round of bids from the spring, but Mr. Betz said the total bids were only $100,000 less than last time.
Mr. Betz said that the district's priority was to get the project started to meet the growing enrollment needs at the high school.
He said that the New York State Education Department allows for restructuring the bid process for districts that are projecting a shortage of funds. Bids essential to start the project were awarded first. The board plans to award other parts of the project later in the year.
"Projects that were originally bid but not awarded were the tennis courts, parking around the administration building, and the practice athletic field," said Mr. Betz, adding that other projects that haven't been bid are the middle school and ventilation work at Bedford Hills. Contracts awarded for work at the high school included renovation of the science wing and music wing, and demolition of classrooms in the back of the school.
In April the district's construction manager, David Schunter of Andron Construction, and architect John Geddis of Geddis Partnership reported that many of the bids received for the high school project were higher than the original estimates. The miscalculation was blamed on the spike in construction and materials costs, and the state education department's delayed approval process for the district's renovation application. Mr. Schunter had red-flagged the board in the fall with calculations for the project coming in at about $1.7 mil-lion over original estimates. The board had to figure out how they could pay for all the projects originally proposed in the 2002 bond.
"We looked at certain modifications, like how the foundation was designed," said Mr. Betz. "We are saving more money by changing how the pilings are done, and that will bring the cost down. But the cost for the windows came in higher. We are, cost wise, in the same place we were on April 15. Some bids came in lower, like the general trades contracts."
In April the board discussed raising the contingency of the budget to 6 percent to hedge raising costs on parts of the project that have not yet been awarded.
Mr. Betz said the importance of awarding the major contracts now means the work will get started very soon. "The fact that we've been able to award bids is very good," he said. "This is the first phase of the project that we were going to enter into anyway. We now need to have the rest of the money to attack the interior renovation on the high school following the summer of 2006."
The projected completion date for the high school was 2007. The high school will have three new floors of classrooms in the front and more parking and different routes of access to the school and campus.
Mr. Betz said the project schedule should be on target depending on whether the new bond vote passes.
"We expect to go to the voters late November or early December for the new bond," he said. "But it wouldn't be the end of the world if we waited until January. We want to be ready to award the balance of the project, although we still don't have approval from the state education department for the plans at the middle school."
Mr. Betz said that the board worked hard to get the project started as originally planned.
"The exciting part is that the board realized they could restructure the bid to accomplish this part of the project," he said. "If they hadn't, we wouldn't have too many places to put kids in the building. This will also help us address campus safety issues as well."