MOUNT VERNON – Representatives from Elford Construction gave the East Knox Local School District Board of Education an update at their Sept. 17 meeting.
Afterward, the board passed the $16,648,245 budget for the design development phase of the construction project on the grades 7-12 building.
Michael Huffman, the estimator for the project, laid out the company's plans through the end of the year.
"Currently the design team is moving forward completing the bidding documents and we're set to receive those by the end of October,” he said. “So once we receive those, we'll send it out to the marketplace and begin developing our GMP (guaranteed maximum price)."
This process, Huffman said, would take place throughout November.
"We will then ... sit down and reconcile with the design team" Huffman continued. "That's when we'll finalize our (guaranteed maximum price) and submit it to (the school board) for approval toward the end of December, which will then go on to construction."
The final design phase in determining the GMP requires that the final drawings— which aren’t complete yet— be evaluated in the “marketplace” to evaluate cost, Elford Operations Manager Kyle Bullock said.
The GMP, Bullock explained, will also include stand-alone work called “alternates,” which can be added later or bid out to other contractors as the board wishes. Which particular work will be 'budget' and which will be 'alternate' will be determined by comparing the GMP to the budget the board approved, with final say going to the board.
Project Manager Scott Matthews then gave the board a walk-through of construction, starting in the new year. Demolition should start in February.
"We start creating the building pad, foundations, really getting into site work starting in March,” he said. “Right now, the plan is for the Area A renovations to kick off for that ‘Summer Slam 2021,’ so that'll be anything we're doing inside the existing building we're going to want to jump on next summer.”
Area A, Bullock pointed out, is all the areas of the existing building that are to be renovated; which includes the kitchen, a couple of classrooms and some new office areas.
“So we'll have both projects running concurrently there for a while, wrapping that up before school starts up in August on Aug. 16,” Matthews said.
Matthews added that the next big push will be getting the building enclosed and sealed off before the next winter, then "building completion by July 17 is what we're forecasting right now."
Board Vice President Derrick Steinmetz voiced the importance of public transparency to the board.
“A lot of the community members just like to know— they like to drive by and see things and be in tune to what’s happening,” he said.
Matthews assured that weekly and monthly progress reports on the project will be made available to board members.
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