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Elementary
At a special meeting of the Watonga School Board Sept. 29, the bids for a new elementary school cafeteria were reviewed and accepted.
Builders and board members alike were a little nervous about the entire project, mostly because supply chains are still sketchy and product prices can be volatile.
Van Storm, with project manager and contractor Joe D. Hall, addressed the uncertainty of today’s building environment. “This goes to knowing who you are dealing with,” he said. “If a contract goes long (longer than the build was anticipated to take) and prices continue to change, the contractor still has to perform. We had a great bid turn out and we feel great about who is on the team.”
The bid sheets show 21 subcontractors, all of which are well known to the Hall Company. Because the new cafeteria is going to be a prefab building, the shell and putting it up is not the most expensive aspect of the construction. That would be the utilities and plumbing including air conditioning and heating, at $548,240. Second most costly is the kitchen equipment and serving line, at $407,583.
Other big-ticket costs are electrical wiring at $271,104; doors and windows at $129,985; walls and ceilings inside the shell at $208,000; masonry work at $139,700; the building itself at $302,350; and site work at $207,000. The cafeteria is going in on the northeast corner of the elementary building, an area that was formerly occupied by storage sheds and an old Headstart facility.
The work is being undertaken as part of a $19.995 million bond referendum passed by the district’s voters. This is the first phase of construction, with a gym, field house and wrestling room still on the architect’s drawing board. As soon as those plans are completed, the projects will also go out to bid, meaning there could be several construction sites at Watonga schools at once. As far as the financial facet of the new buildings, Superintendent Kyle Hilterbran isn’t too worried.
“I feel like we’re in a good spot where we can move ahead with this (building). I’m feeling pretty comfortable, pretty good about it all,” he said.
That may be because the board had, earlier in the meeting, approved its estimate of needs, a form sent to the state each year as part of the budgeting process.
Watonga showed a cash balance in the building fund of $1.7 million and $10.42 million in the general fund as of June 30.
It estimates some $3.3 million in gross production tax, a fee paid when natural resources are harvested in the county, and $1.14 million in state aid.