The board approved the funding to go toward renovating two district buildings to be used for the transportation and maintenance departments. The funding for the project comes from the 2017 bond.
The project was awarded to Tegrity Contractors for almost $2.9 million, but an additional $100,000 was included in the final approval cost for contingency to cover unforeseen issues, the district’s Construction Manager Jeff Koehn said during the Dec. 12 meeting.
The 2017 bond included money for a transportation renovation to provide for their growing needs, according to the agenda. In order to provide this, it is necessary to separate the transportation and maintenance departments into their own buildings.
“This actually goes back to the 2017 bond,” Superintendent Telena Wright said. “We’ve been looking for ways to make this as economically feasible for the district as possible.”
The project will provide additional office space, meeting space, community workspace, restrooms for the transportation department and a new break room within the current building. It will also provide a completely new space for the maintenance department in the metal building behind the existing intermediate school.
Several community members spoke during public comment about what this will mean for the district’s archery team, which uses the metal building at the intermediate school. Many said this construction project will disrupt the current season.
“We don't want to disrupt archery, but with change there are going to be disruptions unfortunately,” board President Sam Slaton said. “I don't want to make this construction project about whether we support archery or not. We are going to do the best we can to provide for archery.”
