THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 19, 1995 TAG: 9502170246
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 30 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
City Council this week grudgingly granted the school system permission to spend an extra $3.4 million to build Hickory High School, which is scheduled to open in September 1996.
The project now will total $34 million.
The school originally was budgeted at $25.2 million. Council last year added $5.4 million to the project to expand the school's capacity from 1,500 to 2,000 students.
Under criticism from council members, school officials defended the latest costs.
Deputy Superintendent W. Randolph Nichols told the School Board Monday and City Council Tuesday that a tight construction market, along with some other unexpected costs, contributed to the additional expense.
The budget for the school was set a couple of years ago, when the economy was not as strong and construction prices were lower, Nichols said.
Also, Nichols said, new regulations will require a more expensive type of ventilation system than originally planned.
In addition, school officials and William F. Deal Jr., the architect for the new school, decided to prepare the site now for the middle school that will be built on the same property in 1997. Doing that work, such as roadways and sewer line installation, at the same time as the high school construction will save money in the long run, Deal said Monday.
Deal said the building's plan has no frills. He and Nichols proposed, and the board approved, deleting a high-tech $342,000 partition for the auditorium that would have separated it into smaller, sound-proof lecture halls. Deal said the partition was not necessary, given the concerns over spending.
He called the Hickory plan ``the middle of the road. Not the Cadillac, but not the Volkswagen.''
``We have in all cases tried to give you a building that will last through the years,'' Deal said. The life expectancy of the building is more than half a century.
Still, City Council members urged the board to find ways to trim costs and avoid the overruns.
``It's the citizens' money, and it's council's job as stewards of that money to spend and guard it responsibly,'' Councilman John M. de Triquet told school officials and board members. ``. . . Knowing that there is a finite amount of that money, we expect you to come to us ready with suggestions and a plan to cut projects down to their core . . . to cut any excessive costs outside the core mission of that project.'' MEMO: Staff writer Francie Latour contributed to this story.
KEYWORDS: EDUCATION CHESAPEAKE CITY COUNCIL CHESAPEAKE SCHOOLS by CNB