Parking Lot Project Goes Out for Bidding

The Board of Education decided Monday that the only way they could definitively state how much the proposed parking lot expansion would cost is to receive bids from potential constructors.

In a unanimous vote during the regular meeting, the board opted to add the budgeted expense for the parking lot and the classroom expansion to the Long-Range Facilities Plan.

"Are we making an implicit commitment to both of these projects by ... putting these two items into the Long-Range Facilities Plan?" asked Board Member Al Burgunder.

Superintendent Jim O'Neill said that adding the parking lot and the classroom construction projects to the plan did commit the board. "You cannot do a project that you haven't put into the Long-Range Facilities Plan, but you don't ahve to do every project that's in the Long-Range Facilities Plan.

"You have to, on an annual basis, vote on which projects you do and which ones you don't," O'Neill said.

By adding the projects to the facilities plan, the board can allow the project to go out to bid.

Prospective constructors can bid on two parts of the project, the classroom construction and the parking lot expansion. When it comes to the parking lot, constructors can bid on a large lot that would add about 89 spots, or on a smaller lot that would add 50 spots

Board President Tom Belding said sending it out to bid, does not commit the board to constructing the lot. The board could still vote against building the lot.

Any vote approving or disapproving the parking lot construction would likely not take place before the June 27 meeting, Belding said.

Under the 2011-2012 school budget, $1,618,255 is available for the classroom construction and $400,000 is available for the parking lot construction and paving.