School board awards bids for safety remodeling project

McCOOK, Neb. -- For a little over half a million, a firm from Colorado will be the general contractor for the major entrance upgrade at the McCook Senior High.

The McCook Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday at its special meeting to award the bid to TCC Corp. of Windsor, Colo., for $630,500, the only bid received for the project.

According to the contract, TCC Corp. will have 83 days to complete the renovation, from the last day of school on May 18 to Aug. 9. It will include renovating the front of the high school on the south side to secure access to the school, similar to what is at McCook Elementary. A window inside a vestibule will allow school visitors to be visible to office staff, and a buzzer system will allow access. The improvements will include remodeling the principal's office, as well as the nursing and counseling offices.

The board previously approved preliminary drawings and blueprints by architect David Wilson of W Design Associates in McCook. The design firm, which put out and received bids, received a fee of 7.5 percent of total cost of the project, at $47,287.50

Board member Brian Esch asked Wilson about the background of TCC Corp. and Wilson replied that it has done a $1.4 million office building in Imperial, Neb., and a similar project to this one with time limits at the Dundy County-Stratton School. "They understand the constraints we have in this project and have done good work in the past," he said. The company also did work at the Keystone Business Center.

Wilson added that some work can be done ahead of time to meet the August deadline, such as ordering materials and having them on site and construction conferences to plan the work. Board member Teresa Thomas asked how the bid came in lower than Wilson's original estimate of $676,451 and he answered that he tried not to make the estimate too high or too low and that TCC knew it had to be competitive to get the bid.

Several board members asked about over-run costs of the project, including those from board president Tom Bredvick. Wilson said that a foreman would be onsite but with remodeling projects, unforeseen problems can occur. "We try to anticipate that ... and work to avoid those if we can," he said. Cost over-runs would be done on an as-needed basis with change orders. "If there is some way to mitigate costs, we will do so."

Thomas also addressed over-run costs and the percentage of those occurring. "Sometimes things go simply, sometimes they don't, there's no way to predict," Wilson said, adding that they started out with plans from 1952, when the building was originally built.

This project will be funded by two sources, said Rick Haney, McCook School District business manager, coming from the special building fund, where funds can be used only for capital improvement projects and major construction and from a transfer from the general fund to the depreciation fund. As the project has been been planned for some time and delayed twice, the budget has been built around it and will not cost the taxpayer any extra money, he said. "This is not a big hit in the budget ... we've been saving for this project for the past four to five years and have the money to do it."

Bredvick said doing the renovation now is a good way to save taxpayers money later down the line, by not having to replace the high school in 25 years. "It's a better long-term strategy than approaching the taxpayers for a new high school," he said.

Sub-contractors for the project were chosen by TCC and include only two local contractors, Steve's Electric for electric work and Hegwood Concrete of Culbertson for concrete work.

Other subcontractors include: demolition: TCC Corp.; masonry: Colburn Masonry; steel, Weld Tech; carpentry, Woodco/TCC Corp.; doors, Collins Floor and Hardware; drywall, TCC Corp.; painting, Seth Denney Painting; acoustical, T-C Ceilings; flooring, Vitztum Flooring; plumbing, Moreland Enterprises; and HVAC, AJ Sheet Metal.

Seth Denney, a graduate of McCook High School, has a painting business in addition to being co-anchor at NTV News.