Warren County Middle Schoolers should be able to look to a brighter future out of their brand new windows coming within the next year.
Prior to Thursday’s School Board meeting, architect Allen Hill of Upland Design learned that four bids have been received to replace all the windows at the middle school. Hill and Director of Schools Grant Swallows found out the day of, and no discussion on the bids had taken place before the meeting.
“Our cost estimate for the project was $1,026,000 for the school front, or glass window option,” said Hill. “The low bid was $995,000. That was from FTM Construction.”
This bid comes from the same contractor that worked on the Bobby Ray Elementary project.
The next lowest bid was from King Construction Group, Inc. at $1,028,990. No other bids were announced at the meeting, but Hill recommended the bid from FTM.
Hill and Swallows didn’t ask to approve a bid just yet, however. They requested the School Board approve an executive action to allow enough time for the bids to be discussed.
Hill asked for approval, “to give us a bit more time to evaluate the bids, and then take action quickly before the next meeting.” This would allow a bid to be accepted without the approval of the School Board, but members would be notified which bid was accepted.
They asked for this option since the bids came on the same day as the meeting and didn’t have enough time to be thoroughly discussed.
Swallows said, “They handed this to me before we walked in so it’s the first time I’m seeing it.”
Hill optimistically said that if they receive the money and can order the materials quickly, they may be able to get started on the replacements by the end of summer. He said, “What we’re thinking is material would ordered and will be on site so that work could be done over fall break, Christmas break, spring break, and then into next summer.”
He said it could be possible for some replacements of smaller windows to take place during school hours, but most would be done during breaks.
The motion passed and a decision by executive action to accept a bid has yet to be made.
