The Marysville high school stadium project is back out to bid after some tweaking.
At a school board meeting Thursday night, Assistant Superintendent Jonathan Langhals said revisions were made to the stadium plans to drive down the cost of the project. Replacements have been made in some areas and certain items were taken out of the bid to instead direct purchase them.
In November, no company presented a bid that was within the original estimate of $7.14 million for the high school portion of the project, and went 10 percent beyond the estimate. After revisions, the district’s estimated cost for the project is now nearly $5.73 million.
“They’re minor changes that can save us some good money,” Langhals said.
Superintendent Diane Mankins said concrete will be used, and that shaved down the price. She said the the graduation day deadline was removed from the guidelines.
“We made some modifications to send that back out,” Mankins said. “We’re cautiously optimistic. Everyone’s a little anxious because it’s over that Christmas and New Year time.”
Langhals said the district will be direct purchasing turf, lighting and bleachers for the visitor’s and band sections. This means those materials will be purchased through the same permanent improvement fund dollars, but won’t be included in the construction bid.
He explained the bleachers will now be built with “a different structural approach” with “a different type of metal material.” He said while quality is still sought out, it will also be cheaper.
“This must be a high-quality product that’s going to last our community for a long time,” Langhals said.
He said turf is a good substitute for grass because it lowers the cost of maintenance throughout the year. He said it also opens the field to other sports, rather than saving the grass just for football.
“We hope to host community events in there,” Langhals said.
Langhals said direct purchasing helps drive down costs because the school can dictate which companies and products it can use. He said a general contractor could potentially get expensive materials or drive up labor costs for things the district could do cheaper, giving the district the option of leaving certain aspects of the project out of the initial bid. However, he said it’s not feasible to direct purchase everything, and a general contractor is needed to direct the project. Portioning out parts of the project allows the district to move forward despite the 10-percent rule on bidding.
Langhals said he hopes to cut down at least $100,000 from the project’s cost by doing this.
Langhals also explained, with the removal of the requirement for graduation to be held at the stadium, it gives more flexibility to the contractor once construction begins. He said that already drives down costs, as the district wouldn’t have to pay for overtime and weekend work and protecting building materials from winter conditions.
“The timeline is now really favorable for the district and the general contractor,” Langhals said.
He said the stadium is expected to be completed by the first football game of the season, which he expects to be late August. He also said the track portion of the stadium won’t be completed until October.
District Treasurer Todd Johnson said the project is being paid through the permanent improvement fund, using TIF dollars.
In an email, Johnson stated the TIF fund had more than $4.78 million. Then $736,606 in expenditures were paid. He stated $138,577 has been collected in donations so far.
Johnson said though TIF funds are picking up the cost of the project right now. Donations are eventually expected to pay for those expenditures.
Officials hope to open bids in January before that month’s board meeting.