Chesapeake – Chesapeake School District moved one step closer to beginning construction on its new school project.

Wednesday, April 19, 2000

Chesapeake – Chesapeake School District moved one step closer to beginning construction on its new school project. Chesapeake Board of Education members have agreed to approve the design development stage of the architectural drawings on the proposed new middle school and additions and renovations to the current high school, which will be transformed into a middle school at a special meeting with the district’s architects, construction manager and Ohio School Facilities Commission representative Tuesday.

"This is a necessary evil we have to go through," board member Carl Lilly said. "There are three different stages to the design process and this is the second."

The project began after voters approved a property tax levy in February 1999, which will supply about a $2.4 million match to $14.2 million in state building assistance funds. The project will not only include the construction of a new middle school and the renovation of the current high school, it also will include the renovation of the elementary school.

The next step in the project will be to complete construction documents before the district begins advertising for bids. If all goes well, that should happen in early summer, said Bob McAuliffe, construction manager with BBL Maesher DAG LLC.

"The next phase – construction documentation – is the second to last phase," he said. "Then there’s code review and we’re off to bid. We’ll bid everything at once here."

Construction will begin in the fall, McAuliffe added.

"They will start construction on the middle school this fall and do the addition work on the high school periodically," McAuliffe said. "The addition work is separate from the renovation work, which can’t be done while school is in session. In the summer of 2001, they will do any renovation work that needs to be done."

Additions to the high school will include the construction of two new 900 square-foot rooms and storage areas to the present music room. Renovation work includes installing new carpet, ceilings, light fixtures and a heating and air conditioning system, among other things, said Regina Chabot, project manager with Tanner, Stone and Co. Architects.

Although high school renovation costs exceed the recommended budget by $40,000, all parties felt comfortable moving on to the next level of the design process, McAuliffe said.

There are a few areas in the designs that could be changed, and it is possible the difference will be made up through savings when the renovation project is bid in the same package as the construction of the new middle school, he added.

"We’re over budget, but we can see how to get below budget," McAuliffe said. "We’ll know more in a few weeks."

And it is better to be a little over budget than under, OSFC project administrator Glen Rowell said.

"We absolutely don’t want the money back," Rowell said. "And, ultimately, in any over budget condition we will share the cost in equal proportions to the percentage of building assistance funds. And we have an easy out at the next stage when we take the bids and know the actual costs of the project. My feelings are we should move forward."

If the project is OK’d at the next stage while it is still over budget, the Ohio School Facilities Commission will pay 85 percent of the costs, Rowell said.

Construction of the new middle school also is more in line with the budget now and the project will move forward.

Architects made several modifications to the design after the first try yielded costs that exceeded the budget by $560,000, Ms. Chabot said.

"We had a little hurdle to get over on the budget," she said. "We worked that out. And we held up presenting the documents until we worked that out. It’s coming together. We just have to finish up and bid it."