Bids were opened Tuesday afternoon for the Hopkinsville-Christian County Academy construction project; it wasn’t good news for school officials.
Christian County Public Schools spokesman Johnna Brown said in a release that two bids were submitted by general contractors and opened Tuesday.
The low bid was from DW Wilburn for a base of $198.85 million. The other bid was from A&K Construction with a base bid of $203.4 million. Brown said each bid consisted of designated alternate options and met all district and state requirements for an eligible bid.
General contractors are the people in charge of the day-to-day on-site operation of a construction project. Among their responsibilities are looking at an architect’s designs and using them to put together a bid package for how much they estimate the project will cost.
When the discussion of consolidating Hopkinsville High and Christian County High began in the community, an initial price tag of $90-95 million was mentioned.
In January, the school board submitted a BG-1 form for the construction of the consolidated high school campus along with the Gateway Academy in the amount of $97 million with project costs totaling $107 million.
When the school board voted 3-2 in February to move forward with the consolidation project, the price tag mentioned was $114.5 million with an estimated $32 million coming from federal coronavirus money, $70 million in bonds, and additional grant money.
Earlier this month at the Christian County Agribusiness Association Meeting, Superintendent Chris Bentzel said the cost of the school might be as high as $125-140 million due to inflation and the rising cost of construction material.
The new school will be broken down into five academies of approximately 400 students each. Those academies will follow a specific pathway — agriculture, engineering, business, hospitality, or medical — with accompanying principals, guidance counselors, and teachers.
The new school will be located on nearly 90 acres of land on Fort Campbell Boulevard at Lovers Lane.
Bentzel said at the Agribusiness presentation that the school board is expected to get an update on the bid process Thursday. The school system sent the media an agenda for a Thursday retreat at noon at the Murray State Regional campus. Among the items on the agenda are the update of the consolidation project and the update of the bid and construction project.
Bentzel said in a memo to the media that the retreat will be used for general discussions and no items will be voted on. He has previously said ground on the project was expected to be broken in mid-August. However, in the wake of Tuesday’s bids, Bentzel said “district officials are evaluating their options at this time.
