Mar 5, 2013 3 min read

CARMICHAELS – Carmichaels Area School Board approved an agreement Tuesday with its architect, The Hayes Design Group, to complete the design of the district’s proposed school renovation project.

The board has developed plans to renovate all three district buildings. Hayes has completed the conceptual design of the renovations as well as the initial submissions for the district to obtain state reimbursement for the project.

The board first met with Kevin Hayes, questioning him on various aspects of the proposed agreement, before discussing the matter privately in executive session.

The agreement, approved subject to the solicitor’s review, will take the project through the phases of schematic design, design development, construction document preparation, bidding and construction administration.

Under the agreement, the district agrees to pay Hayes on an hourly basis for him and members of his firm to complete the work through the design development stage.

At the end of the design development stage, the architect will propose a lump sum fee based on an estimate of his staff’s time for completing the remaining work.

If the district and architect can’t reach agreement on the lump sum fee, the fee will be an amount not to exceed 7 percent of the costs of construction for those elements of the project the architect designs.

The preliminary estimate of construction costs for the project is $21.5 million, which would mean the fee could not exceed $1.5 million should the two sides be unable to reach agreement on a lump sum payment.

Hayes said he proposes the lump sum fee rather than a straight percent fee to help fairly balance the risks between his firm and the district and to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.

If the firm were to recommend, for example, a more expensive heating system because it believes it is best, it could not be said the system was recommended only to boost the architect’s fee, he said.

The entire project has been estimated to cost between $23 million and $25 million. Taking into account state reimbursements, estimated at $7 million, actual costs to the district are expected to be between $16 million and $18 million.

With the approval of the agreement, Hayes will begin work on the schematic design. Hayes told the board that members of his staff would be in the district Thursday to begin talking with teachers about their needs.

The schematic design is expected to take about three months to complete. Hayes said he would be meeting with the board each month to discuss the project. The board will be made aware of all key aspects of the project, he said. “There will be no surprises.”

In other business, the board voted to nominate board member Dr. Richard Krause to the Intermediate Unit 1 board and to hire David Franks at $21.59 an hour as a maintenance technician to replace Frank Lucas, whose retirement is effective at the end of the month.