By Jolene Farley
The architectural firms Group II Architects, Spitznagel Inc., and Hartman Architecture Inc., all from Sioux Falls, made presentations to the Hills-Beaver Creek Board of Education concerning the proposed locker room and fitness center addition Monday evening.
The board has been considering construction of a new locker room facility and community fitness center at Hills-Beaver Creek High School.
Current locker rooms in the basement of H-BC are not handicap accessible, have space limitations and present air quality issues.
Cost estimates for renovation of the current locker rooms ranged from $80,000 to $100,000, so the board decided to pursue new construction.
Superintendent Tom Knoll invited the firms to attend the meeting and sent them a list of pertinent questions the board would like answered during the interview.
Mayor George Langford and Councilman Jim Jellema, representing the city of Hills, also asked a few questions during the interviews.
The firms were asked to explain their business histories, to estimate their fees, provide insurance information, demonstrate their experience with similar projects, say what type of engineers they used in similar projects, explain what type of contracts they generally use and provide lists of references.
Group II Architects sent three representatives to Monday's meeting. They proposed a $3,500 fee for schematic services to establish the project scope and budget. Reimbursable expenses, estimated in the range of $1,000 to $1,500, including printing of bidding documents, mileage and long distance phone calls, would also be billed out.
In projects with construction costs in the range of $200,000 to $300,000 total fees are estimated at 12 percent of total construction cost, not including reimbursable expenses.
The Spitznagel Inc. representative proposed fees of $1,090 for pre-design and programming and a fee of $3,280 for the schematic design. He proposed total project fees of $21,850 for a $200,000 to $250,000 project. The firm would also bill for reimbursable expenses.
Specialty consultants such as surveyors, geo-technical and civil engineers would be billed directly to the school or separately through the firm.
Hartman Architecture proposed they handle not only the design of the addition but that they contract for construction management. They stressed they could save some general contractor markups on materials by providing construction management services themselves.
"We watch construction dollars closely; we make sure what you get is what you are paying for," said firm owner Roger Hartman. Hartman Architecture designed the last addition at Tuff Memorial Home and listed Administrator Dana Dahlquist as a reference.
They stressed their "hands-on approach to projects." Their fees for a $200,000 project would be in the 8-percent range for architecture alone, and in the 15-percent range including general contractor services. Reimbursable expenses would be $50 per set of plans with an estimated 35 sets needed, according to Hartman.
The board asked each candidate the minimum square footage needed for a locker room. Answers varied depending on if the district built individual showers or group showers and the materials used for construction.
"We need to find out what is totally necessary and what we can cut back on," said School Board member Ann Boeve. "We don’t need gold pipes in the walls."
Board members Boeve, Lloyd DeBoer and Dave Roozenboom had traveled to two area schools and toured their locker rooms. They had "no frills," according to Roozenboom.
"Budget will drive what you can do," said the Spitznagel representative.
"I don't see any way we can get away from construction costs of $100 per square foot," Knoll said after the firms left.
Since the board plans to pay for this project out of the general fund balance, Knoll advised the board not to go over the $200,000 mark for the project.
Using the $100-per-square-foot construction estimate, $200,000 will build a 2,000-square-foot locker room addition.
After much discussion, board member Gary Esselink made the motion that $200,000 is the maximum amount the district can spend on the locker room facilities. Lloyd DeBoer seconded and the motion carried.
No decision was made concerning which architecture firm to hire. The board plans to make a decision on this issue at their next meeting.
The board previously tied up about $200,000 of the $590,000 fund balance when it passed a motion requiring a fund balance of $500 per pupil at all times during its Feb. 12 meeting.
The board added that private donations could increase the amount allotted for the project.
The city of Hills had verbally agreed to help with the fitness center project, according to Boeve, but needed concrete information about the project to proceed.