Construction Update (9/15/15) //www.williamsbayschools.org/pro/bulletin/rss_posts.cfm?threadid=4&memberid=886 Dr. Anderson's Blog - Construction Update (9/15/15) en-us Wayne Anderson //www.williamsbayschools.org/about/blog.cfm?posts=1&threadid=4#item_4 As you drive by the Middle/Senior High School on Highway 67, you might have noticed that the walls of the new elementary school are now starting to take shape. On Monday, September 14, the precast concrete walls started to be erected. These walls form the skeleton of the new elementary gymnasium and fitness center. It will take about eight or nine days (weather permitting) for all of the precast walls to be put up. However, as you drive by the site you should notice new wall additions going up each day. In addition to the precast walls going up, the fire walls between the new elementary school and the existing Middle/ Senior High School are almost completed. These walls are the ones made of concrete blocks. The masons are on schedule to have these walls completed by the end of the week. Our structural steel was originally planned to be here yesterday, but that date has now been pushed back to September 28. Once the steel arrives it will start being erected and the rest of the exterior will start taking shape. It is our goal to have the exterior of the building completed and enclosed by winter break.

In addition to watching the outside of the building going up, you will start seeing some site changes during the month of October. In October, the site is scheduled to have the curb, gutter and sidewalks installed. After this is completed, the new site roads will be paved with blacktop. This initial coat of blacktop will probably be put down the first week of November. As always, the project budget is constantly a source of review. On Wednesday, September 9, the bids were due for the remaining portions of the building project. I was present for the bid openings and the initial review of the bids seems very positive – the initial bids came in about $157,000 below our budget. Now representatives from Scherrer Construction are going over the bids in greater detail and meeting with the companies to insure that all bid specifications have been met and that their bid price is accurate. These bidder interviews should be completed by the end of this week and then a revised project budget will be completed. In order to maximize the use of our referendum dollars, the School Board is continuing to look at various “value engineering” items to see if we can make changes to the project that do not lessen the quality of the project, but may lessen the price. As I have mentioned in the past, the School Board and staff are committed to building the best educational building possible, while getting the most for the money that has been entrusted to us by the community.

Another construction project that is being completed at the same time is the new baseball field that will be ready for use this spring. On Wednesday, September 16, the new field will be having the final preparation work started – this includes getting rid of any stones that are in the field and eliminating the weeds that have sprung up on the field. This final preparation work will take about one week to complete. Once it is finished the sod will be put down in the infield and outfield. After the sod has been laid, the infield will be completed and finally the outfield fence will be put up during the first week of October. In order to better utilize our funds, the dugouts will be constructed using materials and labor that have been donated by the Sports Boosters and local suppliers. The school district did receive some unexpected bad news on this project last month dealing with our Fund 80 revenues. Fund 80 is a community resource fund that school districts use to help finance different community based programs such as running recreational departments, operating indoor swimming pools, and providing services to community members outside of the school day. The district had used this fund to raise revenue to help construct the baseball field because it would be used not only by the school district, but also by the Recreation Department during the summer months. The district had almost $400,000 in Fund 80. When the district raised these funds, the Department of Public Instruction’s (DPI) regulations allowed for these funds to be used for this type of construction. However, unbeknownst to us these regulations changed after July 1, 2014 and the DPI will no longer allow these funds to be used on this construction project. The district is committed to completing this project and will take the necessary funds from our Fund Equity (the district’s saving account) to pay for this project. Though this was bad news, the good news is that the field will be built this year and ready for use in the spring. On the bright side, though the district cannot use these funds to pay for the field’s construction, it will be able to use these funds in the future to help support other school-community projects.

Finally, as part of the Village’s approval process for the new elementary school, the district had to commit to redesigning our current wet pond so that it would meet all of the State’s and Village’s water runoff regulations. So far, the district has drained the current pond and dug several test pits to investigate the composition of the soil. These soil samples are now being used to identify what needs to be done so that the pond can handle all of our future site water runoff. The school district has enlisted the services of Kapur & Associates to help design and oversee the construction of a new wet pond. The plan should be completed by either the end of this week or early next week. After the plan has been reviewed and approved, the construction of the new pond will take place. It is our goal to have this new pond completed in the fall.

If at any time, you have a question regarding either the building project or any school topic; please feel free to contact me and I will do my best to answer your question(s). Thank you again for your continued support!

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