HALEYVILLE - The Haleyville City Board of Education has approved a $1,498,500 bid for the Haleyville High School gym lobby’s renovation from Building Construction Associates (BCA) of Decatur.
The board previously sought bids for this project in May 2021, according to Dr. William Bishop, Haleyville City Schools director of administrative services. It received two bids then, the lowest of which was Boyett Construction’s for $1,045,865.
Since prices had increased dramatically during the pandemic, the board decided to hold off on the project in hopes of getting a lower bid later, assuming prices would decrease again once the pandemic was under control, Bishop said.
The funds the board planned to use for the lobby renovation are part of the $2,373,128.24 allocated to HCS in May 2020 under the Investing in Alabama’s Future Act.
After three years, the Alabama Public School and College Authority, the state agency that manages those funds, is required to review the status of any unspent funds to determine if they should be reclaimed and reallocated.
In light of that deadline, according to Bishop, in the fall, the board sought bids on a different project on which to use the funds: the construction of a 6,700-square foot concession stand and athletic facility on the visitors’ side of the football stadium.
However, when bids were made for that project in August 2021, the lowest bid was for $1,929,600, a cost of $288 per square foot, Bishop said, and the board again decided not to proceed for such a high price.
Then, rather than dropping, prices began to rise even higher, and the deadline was still growing closer, so the board decided to revisit the lobby renovation project, according to Bishop. It asked for bids again but received none.
Bishop said that he then reached out to a number of contractors, including the two who had bid in May 2020. Initially, all of them said they couldn’t source the subcontractors they needed to undertake the project.
Then Bishop found BCA, which had the necessary subcontractors and was willing to make a bid. The price is somewhat higher than the 2021 lowest bid, but Bishop said that the new version of the project does include some additional work, including “translucent panel removal and asbestos abatement of these panels.”
The board voted unanimously to approve BCA’s bid as the first item of new business at its monthly meeting on Feb. 21. A variety of other business was conducted at that meeting.
With unanimous votes, the board approved amending the salary schedule, the supplement schedule and the athletic schedules and various HCS policies, including the student policy, the inventory fixed asset policy and guidelines, board policy, the accounting regulation for schools, the accounting procedures manual and the booster club/parent organization handbook.
See complete story in the Northwest Alabamian.
Subscribe now!