Carmichaels hires project manager
Carmichaels Area School Board approved a contract with a company to serve as construction manager on the renovation of the elementary center that is expected to get underway in May.
The board approved a contract with Eckles Construction Services of New Castle at its regular meeting Thursday.
The board interviewed the firm and approved a motion to hire it at a special meeting Jan. 27.
Accelerated Construction Services, the original construction manager on the ditrict’s school renovation projects, opted not to participate in the elementary renovation after completion of the middle-senior high project in September, Superintendent John Menhart said.
Eckles had been one of the six firms to originally submit proposals for the entire project, which included the elementary and middle-senior high renovations. Eckles has served as construction manager on renovations projects in other area school district and was available immediately, Menhart said.
The company will be paid based on a fee schedule taking into account hours worked and personal. The costs could range from $130,000 to $162,000, depending on the length of the project, business manager Amy Todd said.
Under a tentative schedule, bids on the elementary project will be advertised Feb. 29. Proposals will be opened at the end of March and a contract awarded the beginning of April.
The plan is for work to begin the first week of May on the third floor of the elementary school, Menhart said.
The fourth and fifth-grade students who occupy that floor will have classes for the rest of the school year in the modular classrooms that were used during the middle-senior high projects.
No workers will be in the school, or work conducted, during school hours, Menhart said. An open house meeting will be held, tentatively scheduled for April 7, to explain the project to parents, Menhart said.
The renovation project will continue during the summer months and is expected to be “substantially completed” by Aug. 12.
“That should give us time to clean up and to move all the furniture back in to get the building ready for students,” he said.
The project, originally estimated at $3.5 million, will include replacement of the roof, exterior doors and classroom finishes, mechanical and electrical upgrades, installation of LED lighting and upgrades to the restrooms.
It also will involve construction of a new, secure entrance. The entrance will be re-configured to require anyone entering the building after the start of classes to first be “buzzed’ in through a locked door and then pass through the office.
In other business at Thursday’s meeting, the board approved a contract to replace the lighting at high school football field.
The district had received six bids for the project and awarded the contract to I&Y Construction of New Enterprise for $245,700.
The lighting at the stadium has not been changed since 1969. Menhart said metal supports on the poles are rusted and their replacement was viewed as a matter of safety.