GENTRY — Construction work could begin on Gentry School District's new multi-purpose athletic and activities building as early as the end of February or the first of March.
Construction documents for the building are expected to be ready for submission to Flintco, the construction management company for the project, next week, with bid packages going out by Jan. 1 and bids opened Feb. 14.
State approval of plans has caused a slight delay in submission of plans to the construction management company according to the building's architect, Mike Spaeth of Hight-Jackson. Also of concern is a survey showing a five-inch gas line behind the high school, which Spaeth thought was a typographical error but wanted to plan for with another gas line in case the survey was correct.
Flintco remains hopeful construction will soon be under way and the building finished within seven months and possibly by the end of August, according to Heath Rhey of Flinto.
Rhey told board members that the building time could take up to seven months because of the time for the steel building to be fabricated and because of the time to order and receive the turf for the indoor field.
"We hope to be done and turn over the building by the end of August," Rhey said, explaining that he needed to allow seven months because of possible delays.
While ground work and prepatory work such as moving the driveway for school buses could begin as soon as bids are approved, actual construction of the building would depend on the delivery times of the steel structure and the turf.
Also discussed briefly at the board meeting was contacting local and area businesses for help with the project because a final price for the project, even after some cuts were made to reduce the cost, was estimated to exceed the $3 million approved by the voters in the November election.
In December, Rhey told the board, based on 60-percent drawings, he had prepared an estimated budget of $3,866,099 for the multi-purpose facility. The board requested some cuts to reduce the cost, including lowering the ceiling height at the pitch from 40 feet to 34 feet and narrowing the width of the building and taking away the “lean to” storage area. The changes reduced the estimate to within $169,000 of the original $3 million budget. A number of other suggestions were rejected by the board; and Randy Barrett, district superintendent of schools, said it might be possible to use some other funds the district had available for a one-time expenditure.
News, Pages 8 on 01/23/2013