ThisWeek CW 09/24/2015

http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2015/09/21/new-groveport-madison-high-school-board-oks-51-4m-maximum-price-for-project.html

The numbers are in and Groveport Madison Local school district officials have approved a $51,428,964 guaranteed maximum price for a new high school.

School board members voted unanimously Sept. 9 to approve a reconciliation between the cost a VSWC architect estimated when the initial schematic design was done and the estimate for completing the work devised by Smoot Construction, the construction manager for the project.

Superintendent Bruce Hoover said there had been a gap of more than $12 million before the reconciliation was completed. This gap represented the difference between what the architect had designed and believed would fit within the district’s projected budget and how much more the construction manager believed it would actually cost to complete, Hoover said.

“Ultimately, the approved reconciliation shows a positive cash flow of $71,237 with a number of alternative items still included in the schematic design,” he said.

The district is anticipating that a second submission of project costs will be provided to the board by mid-October as part of the detailed design phase.

“These are important steps to keep the high school project moving forward and to prevent costly delays in the construction of the facility,” Hoover said.

Besides the approval of the guaranteed maximum price for the new high school, board members unanimously approved $24,000 for VSWC architects to evaluate costs associated with relocating the bus facility to a recently acquired building at 4400 Marketing Place, which is also slated to house district administrative offices and Cruiser Academy.

Changes are occurring already as trees are being removed from in front of existing buildings to allow utilities to be relocated and temporary modular classrooms to be installed.

Hoover said some of the trees that were removed had been planted in honor of former students, but the district would inventory all the associated plaques and the trees will be replaced with specimens of similar size and variety.

“We want this new site to be beautiful,” Hoover said. “Part of our goal is a facility that’s ‘green’ in energy efficiency and appearance.”

To that end, he said the district plans to plant between 75 and 175 new trees and up to 300 new bushes as part of the project.