NP School Board OKs corporation renovation project

Thursday, December 6, 2018

BAINBRIDGE -- Concluding at least two years of discussion and evaluation, school officials took a major step toward the improvement of infrastructure and maintenance at North Putnam Schools.

During a special session Tuesday evening, the North Putnam School Board approved a multi-million-dollar project aimed at addressing renovations and repairs at all of the schools in the corporation.

The meeting was called primarily to hold a second public hearing required so consultants could present information and answer questions about the economic and legal elements of the project. The first was conducted at the board’s regular meeting on Nov. 15.

Previously, a synopsis of the renovations was provided to the board by North Putnam Superintendent Nicole Singer. She then invited municipal adviser Belvia Gray from Umbaugh and Associates to discuss the economic impact of the project and the cost to taxpayers.

That meeting inspired rigorous discussion by board members over the scope of the renovations, and whether the estimated cost of the project was reasonable.

That carried over to the session Tuesday evening, though it accompanied a more comprehensive analysis of what would need to be done at each of the schools at North Putnam.

The board invited George Bingham from BTY Consulting to share information as to those specific renovations. He related that he had visited each of the buildings during a site review, and that he had also talked to administrators and athletic departments about their most pressing needs.

One-by-one, Bingham went through a list of needed repairs which were organized by safety concerns and aesthetics. Some upgrades such as the addition of fencing, parking lot repavement and new carpeting were common across all four schools.

Bainbridge Elementary will require the least extensive repairs of all the buildings with new fencing and carpeting. Roachdale is slated to have part of its gym roof repaired in addition to establishing a more secure entrance, both of which have had the board’s concern. North Putnam Middle School will require the replacement of its original lockers, as well as an upgrade to its intercom system.

North Putnam High School will by far demand the most attention during the project. The nearly 50-year-old building will require portions of its roof to be repaired or replaced entirely. Other major items included the update of its heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system, remodeling of bathroom facilities, as well as the replacement of the gym floor, among other necessary improvements.

Bingham provided that many of those renovations depended on future designs, and estimated that most of those determinations could be figured out by the end of next January. This was in response to a question by retiring Jackson Township representative John Hays, who would question the project’s timeline throughout the session.

The board then invited Gray to reiterate information with regard to the financial impact to taxpayers and the corporation. She again provided that the $18 million project would require an about 25-cent increase to the current tax rate. As the current rate stands at 69 cents, property owners would pay a 94-cent tax to support the project. Gray also relayed again that the total cost is scheduled to be repaid in full in just under 20 years from the issuance of bonds.

After Gray concluded the presentation, the floor was opened up to the public as well as board members. As was the case at the previous meeting, Hays brought further questions regarding the project’s scope, especially as it related to the $18 million maximum that was estimated to cover the project.

Hays essentially questioned the mode in which the needed repairs and the subsequent cost were determined. This related to an explanation given by Bingham of two routes the corporation could go with regard to procuring a contractor and beginning the work.

One of those routes would be to price the renovations and then mold the scope of the project. The second method, called design-build, would be to determine the project’s scope and then determine a price. From any indication, the board has erred on the latter in context of previous comments by Singer, who has provided the total cost of completing all of the renovations could exceed $19 million.

“We’ve already had a dialogue about what we can do,” Singer said. “We know we need to do something, but I know we don’t want to do over that amount.”

Bingham added that while most of the repairs needed were straightforward, some of them would require further design by the contractor. With that, he said that costs would be calculated by the firm as the project progressed.

“They’re pricing as they’re going,” he said. “The design process could take four months, and we could be eight months before start of construction. The risk you incur would be lower with design-build, because you can have the money in three to four months and still figure out what is necessary.”

“The timeline, from my experience, is a lot longer with getting the scope and then pricing,” Bingham added.

Even so, Hays was skeptical about the maximum, even though he granted that a good idea of the project’s scope had been determined.

“It’s still a completely arbitrary number, in my opinion,“ he said, “I’m not trying to slow anything down, but I just want to make a good decision before committing the money.”

The corporation’s legal counsel for the project Kristin McClellan from the Ice Miller legal firm in Indianapolis offered a simple cause for having the maximum.

“The corporation can’t enter into a contract without having some sort of idea about the money,” she said. “You need to know what your base is.”

Board President Ron Spencer also provided a similar argument, comparing the design-build approach with purchasing a pickup for a set price.

“You need to know what you can afford before you can buy,” Spencer said. “I feel like that’s what the maximum is there for. It is a base cost, and we have said we don’t want to go over that.”

It should be noted that while the board has expressed that the $18 million can be the workable cap, it has by no means committed to that amount. At the end, the board reasoned with input from its attorney Daniel Taylor that further delay could mean closing bids to more qualified contractors.

McClellan said the corporation could enter into bond negotiations by the end of next March, and said that meant the timeline for starting construction could commence around that time.

When the vote came and Hays had noticeably softened his skeptical position on the project’s impact, the board unanimously approved to let the renovations move forward.

The next regular school board meeting is scheduled for Dec. 20 at 7 p.m. in the Administration Building in Bainbridge.

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