Changes Made To Meet Fairmount Price Tag

BRISTOL, Tenn. – The city and the Bristol Tennessee school system have worked out a funding formula to meet the unexpectedly high bid price for the new Fairmount Elementary School.

BurWil Construction and BTCS agreed to a $13.73 million bid on June 13. The agreement is based on a “guaranteed maximum,” meaning BurWil will pay for costs exceeding that amount.

The contract, however, includes a recent change order from the school system that alters or eliminates 10 items originally meant for inclusion. These changes, which add up to more than $326,000, were necessary to fund the guaranteed maximum amount.

Three years ago, it was estimated that the new school would cost about $12 million. When the bids were opened on May 15, school officials learned that rising oil and construction costs had pushed that to more than $13.4 million. BurWil has agreed to a “guaranteed maximum” contract with the school system to build the school for this amount. Add to that a few special features, such as a dome over the new library at a cost of $101,000, an iron fence for $196,000 and the school’s new playground, $40,000, and the total price tag is about $13.7 million.

School officials decided to remove the playground from the total bid amount and fund it later on its own. But the guaranteed maximum, which includes the fence and dome, has not changed.

“Even before the requests for bids were sent out, $250,000 was earmarked for contingencies, $300,000 for furnishings and $200,000 for permits, architectural fees and construction management,” said Todd Bailey, public relations director for the city schools. “So this left BTCS with $10.8 million to spend on construction.”

That meant the school system needed more than $2 million.

To keep the project moving ahead, Steve Dixon, director of schools, and Jeff Broughton, city manager, met and agreed on a funding method to meet that financial need.

The school system put in an additional $500,000, the city joined in with an $800,000 contribution, and the city also advanced the school system $500,000.

That still left a $375,000 deficit, and that’s when school leaders came up with a list of possible cuts. To date, 10 cuts have been made, and this is only “change order No. 1,” meaning other items may be deleted or alternate products used.

“Our construction manager gave us some options of things we cut, and the way its stands right now, we’re still working on making a few more little cuts,” said Ed DePew, BTCS supervisor of facilities and maintenance. “There will be a paper trail.”

DePew said the new school is expected to be completed in November 2009, and the building should be ready to occupy in January 2010.

“All of this [bid changes] hasn’t affected the anticipated opening date, but we were about three weeks late in turning over the school [to BurWil], and that’s not bad.”

Luckily, the school system was not forced to do away with the dome, iron fence or playground, Bailey said. Instead, sun shades will not be placed over classroom windows, a cheaper grade of metal will be used for the school’s ceilings, and other changes, he added. “By doing this we saved enough to meet the bid price, and demolition of the old school could begin as early as next week,” he said.

Fairmount was the oldest school in the system, and it received the poorest rating in a citywide school facilities study completed in 2006 by Knoxville’s Community Tectonics Inc.

At 89 years old, the existing building was tagged for demolition and rebirth under the city’s 20-Year Educational Facilities Financing Plan.

Asbestos abatement is under way at the old school, and permitting from the city and state still is needed before crews will begin heavy demolition.

In the next few weeks, BurWil’s project manager and job superintendent will be formalizing a construction schedule. A copy of that schedule will be posted on the BTCS Web site when available.

Bailey said demolition of the building will take about three weeks, and plans are in the works to install Web cams to allow the public to view demolition and construction 24 hours a day by visiting www.btcs.org.

ggray@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2512