The Central High School Board dealt with several aspects of its ongoing construction project at its Tuesday meeting:
The district will wait to request bids for a restroom building it needs to build as part of its tennis courts/JV baseball complex in hopes of lowering the cost. Originally, the school planned to build a combination restroom/concessions/storage building for $135,000. That building was cut due to cost overruns in other areas, but Paddock Lake has insisted the building be constructed. The district downsized the building and bid it as a standalone project, to find the cost now would be $195,000. District administrator Scott Pierce advised the board to wait until January to rebid the project in hope of getting a lower price. The village is requiring the building be constructed within three years.- The district is still awaiting approval of permits from the state before it can move forward with building the intersection with Highway 83 that will be a new entrance/exit to the property. One hang-up is Salem receiving similar approval for sidewalks it will construct just south of the entrance/exit. Salem’s work could begin by the first week of August, said Mark Eberle, an engineer who has helped design the intersection. The school’s work would begin sometime after that. However, reconstruction on an entrance/exit across from 248th Avenue along Highway 50 will begin next week.
- The district is going to pursue applying for a federal grant that could fund 80 percent of a walk/bike path along Highway 83 from the new tennis courts north to Highway 50. The grant application calls for a 10-foot wide paved path that would be along the road’s right of way (east of a 10-foot parkway from the road side.) As another cost cutting move, the district had hoped to not complete a path that was in its original plans, but village officials have insisted that a path be completed, specifying that an existing six-foot wide gravel path be paved. District administrator Scott Pierce said school officials felt the path specified in the grant application would see more use, but if the grant falls through, the district could fall back to paving the gravel path to fulfill the village’s requirement. Eberle said the grant applications are due in early August, awards will be announced in December, design will take place in 2011 and construction in 2012. The village has given the school three years to complete the path too.
