MEET THE BAUMANN SCHOOL BUS DRIVERS
SCHOOLS
By ABBY LUBY
Next school year, Bedford residents will be asked to approve an additional $6 million to complete the 2001 bond project. The original bond was $67 million. If voters approve more funds, the total project will cost $73,987,019.
The district decided to ask voters for the additional funds at a work session last Friday with David Schunter of Andron Construction and John Geddis of Geddis Partnership. Some board members took Mr. Schunter to task for not giving the board enough of a warning about the lack of funds.
"Why didn't we hear from you earlier about this?" asked board member Susan Wollin.
"We came to you last July and told you we were over by $3 million," said Mr. Schunter. "I don't think you can tell me that you didn't know you had a financial problem."
Mr. Schunter came armed with information documenting how construction costs have escalated over the past four years from rising costs of steel and concrete and labor.
"That situation is now compounded by the 2004 escalation rate being higher than it has ever been," he said, showing them a trade article that explained the rising costs.
"These prices are an aberration that hasn't been experienced [by the construction industry] in many years. It cuts across all parts of construction. Now that oil has started to go up, that's hurting construction as well."
Bob Preston, chief estimator for Andron, said that prices spiked last year but were expected to level off. Last fall, however, construction costs spiked again.
"When we did the estimates [for the high school] in the fall, we said it was about $35.2 million, which was about $1.7 million over," said Mr. Schunter. "I believe I was pretty clear about what was going on."
Mr. Preston explained how he spent about four weeks putting an estimate together.
"Yes, but that was the wrong four weeks," said board vice president Mark Slivka. "Because two weeks later, you knew the estimate was going to be wrong. You had to, because you saw all these things [prices] coming in, and four months later you knew it was going to be even wronger. And then when it came in it was the wrongest."
To hedge raising costs, Mr. Preston suggested that the district increase the contingency to 6 percent. "None of us have a crystal ball to tell you exactly what's going to happen," he said. "Based on what we are hearing, we could expect a 6 percent escalation as we go forward. I think it's going to go up 6 percent, but I can't promise you that - I can't guarantee that."
Mr. Preston said the longer the board delays responding to the bids or putting out new bids, the more it would cost. "If you award the bids now, they [the contractors] are locked in - you sign a contract and they are locked in," he said. "If their materials go up by 20 percent, that's their problem, not yours. If you don't award the bid, every month that you delay you run the risk of your annual costs going up about 6 percent."
The board ultimately decided to move ahead with the project by asking the voters for the additional $6 million sometime in the fall. The district will also be rebidding some of the construction that needs to take place in the
first phase. The asbestos abatement does not have to be rebid, and that work will start in the summer as planned.
"The board's reaction is disappointment because you want so badly to get this done for the community, but it's hard to figure," said Ms. Kumar after the meeting. "Why did they think that that was a good price going forward, when they knew that the $35 million was higher than the original estimate of $33 million?"
Ms. Kumar said that when Andron looked at the bids, they realized that there could be savings on how the foundation for the new high school addition was constructed. "They talked ,about changing the way those pilings are engineered, so now we have to go back out to bid, since that part of the job is different," she said. "It wouldn't be legal not to."
Superintendent Dr. Debra Jackson said that despite skyrocketing construction costs for the high school project, everyone wanted to see the project completed. "The board and the administration determined that they are committed to completing these projects as originally envisioned," she said. "Over the next several weeks we will be modifying the high school project so that we can allow portions of this project to proceed."
Dr. Jackson said that with the additional funds, Andron could go forward with the rebid for the entire project.
Public meetings will be scheduled sometime during the next school year to explain any cost-effective modifications that might be made to the project. "The plan would be to ask the voters if they will approve the completion of the bond project," said Dr. Jackson.
Ms. Kumar said a bond project such as this often produced many unexpected bumps in the road. "When you are doing renovations and open up a 100year-old building and you expect to find one thing and find 28 million other things that you have to fix, that's when the cost starts going up," she said. "But now it's pretty clear to everybody that we don't have enough money to finish the scope of the project as is. So what are our options? You have to do what you promised."