Just moments after Thursday night’s Trigg County Board of Education meeting, District 3 member Clara Beth Hyde exulted: “It’s a great day to be a Wildcat.”
Because in the minutes prior, she’d put forth a motion to accept A&K Construction’s bid of nearly $10.8 million for base construction, renovation and a host of addendum for the highly-anticipated rebirth of the district’s vocational school — made almost entirely possible by a $10 million grant awarded earlier this year by the Kentucky General Assembly.
It was a release of emotion following months of hard work and dedication from district staff, vocational teachers, Architect Andrew Owens of Sherman Carter Barnhart, Director of Operations Matt Ladd, Instructional Supervisor Faye Stevens, Finance Officer Holly Greene and everyone else involved in both procuring the money and designing a cost-efficient facelift for the campus.
Officials opened two bids at 2 PM Thursday, somewhat fearful of the potential for inflated costs, supply and demand concerns, and other recent regional projects that had come in well over budget.
This wasn’t the case, with the two bids coming in at $251 per square foot and $281 per square foot.
Ladd thanked everyone for their efforts.
Ladd and Owens presented to the board a bevy of options, including a base renovation of $7.9 million, as well as giving a list of several items that would require cost changes. These included: $31,000 for new door controls, $16,000 for the synchronization of fire alarms between the main high school and the vocational school, $98,000 for the replacement of four HVAC units that were originally going to be reused, $46,000 for the integration of the vocational school’s front door bell to the high school’s front office, and $578,000 for a full concrete pavement and canopy replacement on the backside and corner to corner of the high school.
These were the accepted changes to the base renovation, which does put the project north of the $10 million grant. However, at just over $800,000, Greene said that cost was certainly acceptable due to other funding measures: $360,000 expected in two-year vocational funding, a more-than-possible $200,000 savings from an ongoing BG-1 project, $80,000 in ESSER funding for a vocational table, and more than $140,000 expected in a SLGS investment.
Other ways the construction cost can be met include a reduction of the $1 million budget for new vocational equipment, and the dipping into the project’s expected contingency of $435,000.
With the premises all but evacuated, Ladd and Owens said construction efforts could start as soon as Friday following a nod to A&K officials.
Barring weather delays and supply chain setbacks, the substantial deadline for this project has been set for October 1, 2023 — better known as Fall Break.
