A Voice from the Eastern Door
A Voice from the Eastern Door
By Andy Gardner
Salmon River Central’s Board of Education awarded $17.5 million in contracts for the fourth phase of their capital renovations project. Meanwhile, the board also voted to put a proposition alongside this year’s budget vote to replace four school buses.
The board took the actions during their regular monthly meeting on Jan. 13.
The total of the awarded capital project bids is $17,560,444, “well below our budgeted amount,” said Mike Lahey, a district architectural contractor.
They’re planning the work to avoid being in the buildings during school hours as a COVID-19 precaution.
“Everybody knows and is cognizant that impacts to the school and impacts to programs are paramount,” said Patrick Hourihan, one of the district’s contractors working on the capital project.
He told the Board of Education that they’re going to “enter the (construction) areas from the outside as much as possible” and are planning to only be in the building “during off hours.”
“We’ve got a really thought-out plan of how we’re going to approach this,” he said.
“The plan really, with Covid, is to start deep into construction probably toward the end of the school year,” Lahey said. “We’re working with the district, finding opportunities we can start ahead of time.”
He said that includes projects like exterior doors and arena doors that keep them well-distanced from students and staff.
“Any capital project, there are going to be challenges. We’re going to have to make some sacrifices,” School Superintendent Dr. Stanley Harper said. “We want to get through this project so we have a beautiful middle school and high school when we’re done.”
Board of Education Trustee Agnes “Sweets” Jacobs asked if the contractors are looking to use the local labor force to get the project done.
“We have a lumber yard, we have a plumbing business. Will there be local people being hired?” Jacobs asked.
“We try to give everybody in the North Country a heads up ... Urge contractors to use the local businesses as much as possible,” Hourihan said. “We strongly encourage it for the simplicity and the realism where you’re right there in the area, there’s no reason to not show up for work, rather than having to drive three to four hours.”
Board President Emily Lauzon asked if there’s a chance that New York State could claw back money because of financial shortfalls from the COVID-19 pandemic.
School Business Executive Natascha Jock said that most likely won’t be the case.
“I don’t see them doing a change retroactively” on a voter-approved project,” she said.
“Projects approved after this rate will get a different aid ratio,” she said. “Right now we’re 98% aided.”
“We’ve got a couple capital outlay projects our company is involved with that are recent … we’ve seen no indication that will be an issue,” Hourihan said.
Trustee Gary Collette asked if there will be any asbestos removed from the school.
“There’s a fair amount of asbestos in the middle school. It’s in the ceilings in the second floor, and in the floor tile. There’s some floor tile in the high school. Most of it is really in the middle school part of the building. It also exists in the high school window wall, which has to be removed as part of the project,” Lahey answered. “We believe we have it identified. We know from past projects where it is, and that’s all included in the bid.”
“The plan is to get most of that knocked out this summer ... get all that asbestos taken care of,” Hourihan said.
They’re also ready for unforeseen difficulties that may pop up once they get to doing the actual renovation work.
“There are a little over a million dollars in allowances … to address things that come up along the way,” Lahey said. “Anytime we get into renovation work, you never know. You take the ceiling down, find something that was there, and you need to address it”
“We look to be in good shape here,” he told the board.
The board’s awarded bids:
• Sitework construction: Barrett Paving of Watertown, with a base bid of $1,124,444 and an alternate bid of $310,000 for an emergency field restoration
• Electrical: Weydman Electric of Tonawanda with a $2,139,000 bid
• General construction: Bette & Cring of Watertown, with a $7,123,000 base bid and an additional $15,000 for an alternate emergency field restoration
• Plumbing: Burns Bros. of Potsdam, $642,000 base bid
• Mechanical construction: Burns Bros. of Potsdam, $5,672,000 base bid
In other news, the Board of Education voted in favor of putting a separate proposal on the May budget vote asking to buy four new buses at a cost not to exceed $475,000.
Jock said each year they “take four of the older, aging ones off the road.”
The old buses will either be traded or auctioned off, “wherever we feel we’re going to get the most return,” she added.
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