Hartford to replace two school roofs

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The 2020 Capital Outlay Project presented by CS Arch's principal manager Greg Klokiw.

With each school distinct being granted one annual $100,000 Capital Outlay Project per building, Hartford’s Board of Education discussed the planned 2020 and possible 2021-2022 projects.

Henderson-Johnson Co. Inc. will be tasked with the replacement of two roofs with wet insulation areas on-campus for the 2020 Capital Outlay Project, as they were the lowest of four bidders with a base bid of $75,323.

“Given the financial climate that we went through last year, we kind of put that on the backburner for a little while before we went out to bid with it,” said managing principal Greg Klokiw of CS Arch, the hired architecture firm.

A third roof was labeled as “alternate number one” and will not be replaced due to its estimated value of $28,523 exceeding the $100,000 maximum limit.

Klokiw said a “change-order” could be negotiated to include the third roof in 2020’s project, but he would not recommend re-bidding the entire project just to include the “alternate number one” roof, as it is in the best condition of the three. 

Klokiw said Henderson-Johnson has completed other projects for the school district including a roof repair in 2016 and the recent renovation of the bus garage roof. This project is scheduled to begin May 3.

“We have a scheduled completion of the project by May 21, that gives us a little bit of cushion in case we do have some weather delays or material delays to get us done by the end of June which is the goal to be done, closed out and paid by the end of June.”

Board president Brian Getty was curious as to why some of the other bids were significantly higher than Henderson-Johnson’s bid.

“We’re trying to get to the bottom of that,” Klokiw said. “We don’t know what they (other out-of-state bidders) anticipated as far as travel and lodging or work expenses. I can’t pinpoint one thing… maybe they were thinking Hartford, Connecticut.”

Looking towards the 2021-2022 $100,000 Capital Outlay Project, Klokiw’s presentation displayed two possible options to the board.

The first option proposed would be focused on the high school, with the roof recoating of the “alternate number one” section that was not awarded for 2020’s project, as well as the addition of a science classroom divider wall to create two separate science classrooms.

Option number two highlighted improvements to be made at the elementary school, focusing on the replacement of 13 “deteriorated” sinks and a new exterior guard rail.

“All of this work has to be done, it’s just a matter of when we address it,” said school superintendent Andrew Cook.

No decision was made, but this will be a topic for the board to discuss for months to come.

Additionally CS Arch and Bernard P. Donegan Inc. (BPD), a financial services group out of Victor, New York, provided a five-year-plan for the board to review so it can predict spikes and dips in the budget for future projects.

Two concept plans presented and proposed, but not approved, involved the addition of a stage that could attract and withstand a large audience.

One concept sketched a stage in the gymnasium which would create the addition of a fitness center and gym storage off the gymnasium as well as a band room close to the stage. Hartford’s financial advisor, BPD Inc.’s Jason Schwartz, and Klokiw both said the addition of the band room would drive down the projected 95% of estimated bond a bit due to the construction of a state-aided building.

“Typically, a band classroom would generate some aid,” Klokiw said. “A lot of times though, the aid generated doesn’t quite cover the construction of additions, so, we might see some tax impact there ultimately driving down that 95% that we were talking about earlier.”

The second concept plan was similar to the first, except it places the stage in the cafeteria and the chorus room extending off the gymnasium, with a corridor constructed to connect to the band room.

“Exiting will be a critical factor as we’ll have to be able to exit out of that gym with a large mass, large potential audience coming out of that gym,” Klokiw said. “The driver here is the creation of the choral and band rooms and the stage with a larger seating capacity.”

Most important to board member Adam Fish is the financial information and “set-in-stone” numbers to be figured out and established so taxpayers can be guaranteed their money will completely fund a promised project.

“I think we’re too early to see what it means financially,” Klokiw said.

“I don’t want to see us go in a direction and then have to change the scope dramatically just based on the financials of it,” Fish said. “When you start putting things out to the community of what you’re looking of doing and only end up doing half of it, it’s kind of tough.”

Fish then suggested community members as well as administrators and teachers get together to form a committee to determine “needs and priorities” going forward.