By Jolene FarleyThe Hills-Beaver Creek School board didn’t vote on bids for the locker room project at a Monday meeting. After opening bids for the locker room project Thursday, May 8, officials were disappointed when bids came in higher than anticipated."I was disappointed," Superintendent Dave Deragisch said. "I’m not going to beat around the bush." Ten general contractors, all from Minnesota or South Dakota, submitted bids for the project ranging from $597,000 to $720,000. Sunkota, Sioux Falls, S.D, submitted the lowest bid of $597,000 with an alternate bid of $503,000, eliminating the fitness center/weight room portion of the project. "The architect is doing a lot of leg work right now reviewing the bids from the different companies," Deragisch said. Two factors increased bid totals, according to Deragisch. Plumbing costs came in $53,000 higher than the architect’s estimate and pre-cast concrete for the walls came in $25,000 higher than anticipated. "We asked the architect to find out what happened here," Deragisch said. If project costs remain less than $500,000, the Department of Children, Families and Learning doesn’t require a Review and Comment process. Deragisch vowed at a December meeting not to exceed $500,000 for the project. The building committee will meet Friday with the architects to evaluate the bids and discuss options for the district. Initial cost estimates for the project without a weight room submitted by Group II Architects, Sioux Falls, ranged from $398,144 to $439,552. The firm estimated the weight room would add $113,302 to $127,512.Voters approved a $400,000 levy for the project Tuesday, March 11, with 69.5 percent of the votes in favor. The district plans to pay for the remaining portion of the construction from current cash assets. State law requires bids for construction projects over $25,000, according to Deragisch. In other board business: oHealth insurance rates for the district will rise 3.5 percent for 2003-04. Last year the district had no premium increase. Rate hikes for other districts participating in the insurance pool averaged 14.5 percent, with the highest increase 21.5 percent. "The pool overall has really stabilized insurance costs," Deragisch said. oThe district received one bid of $2,900 for the removal of 11 trees. The trees need to be removed because of the locker room project.Deragisch contacted four or five companies but most were unable to do the job before August or September.The board suggested another company to contact before they vote.
