BY IRENE LABOMBARDE
The School Board has awarded a $695,000 contract to build three sports fields between McKelvie Intermediate School and the SAU building on County Road.
The board granted the bid to JGE Enterprises of Bedford, including building a Babe Ruth baseball field, a soccer field and a practice field and creating additional parking at the SAU.
The project was originally to be funded with $500,000 in surplus funds from the 2006-07 operating budget, but bids were significantly higher than expected and the design had to be scaled back, said Mark Conrad, chief financial officer. The additional $195,000 approved will come from the current operating budget.
“There are pieces of the project we can eliminate and still maintain the quality of the field. These are peripheral items that really don’t affect the kids’ ability to play baseball,” said Conrad.
The scope of work has been reduced by about $200,000. Among the items eliminated is $37,000 for fencing for the baseball field.
“It’s not that we don’t need it, but we can do it more cheaply ourselves next spring, without a subcontractor markup,” said Conrad.
Other project cuts include $55,000 in landscaping costs for a flagpole, walkways and plantings at the SAU; $5,500 by reducing the number of trees cleared beyond the outfield; $4,500 for dugout slabs and $14,000 for the foundation for the concession stand. Baseball players will have benches instead of cement dugouts, and board member Sue Thomas suggested that fundraising for future dugout construction could be done by the league supporters.
Another $32,000 was trimmed by eliminating a 20-by-30-foot storage building, said Conrad. Storage will still be needed for wiring and tools, but, he said, a prefabricated structure without a foundation would be sufficient. The number of new parking spaces at the SAU has also been scaled back from 90 to 70, for a savings of $26,000. A $30,000 allowance for ledge blasting was also removed from the specifications.
“We will assume responsibility for the ledge allowance. If it comes in less, we save money. If it’s more, we can vary the height of the fields a little. There is some risk, but in talking to the engineers, it is a good position to take,” said Conrad.
Despite the many changes to the specifications, Conrad said it would not be in the district’s best interests to rebid the project.
“We’ve got good, competitive bids. Construction prices are escalating, and we don’t gain anything if we wait four or five months. We would lose an entire season of access to the field,” he said, because the grass needs to be planted in the fall.