THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 2, 1996 TAG: 9610020639
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CURRITUCK LENGTH: 50 lines
The lowest bid to build a new wing and upgrade technology at Central Elementary School is about 8 percent - or $106,000 - more than school officials planned to pay.
Bids on the construction project were opened Tuesday afternoon at the Knapp Teacherage in Currituck. The lowest bids totaled $1,416,623, compared with $1,310,680 that county and school officials tentatively estimated for the Maple school project.
Low bids included $862,623 from general contractor Blue Ridge General of Virginia Beach for construction and to oversee the project, with subcontractors to do the mechanical, electrical and heating work.
Low-bidding subcontractors included ZBZ and Associates Inc., of Virginia Beach, which offered $121,000 for mechanical work (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning) and $143,000 for plumbing. Watson Electrical of Chesapeake bid $290,000 for electrical work.
``I feel pretty good about it based on how crazy the market is these days,'' School Superintendent W.R. ``Ronnie'' Capps said Tuesday.
The School Board is expected to meet later to decide whether to accept the low bids.
The project calls for a new 8,405-square-foot pre-kindergarten wing and media center and 9,024 square feet in renovated space.
The entire 50,843-square-foot facility also is expected to be wired for computers and Internet access at a cost of about $101,000.
Alternate plans factored into the price tag include bleachers in the gymnasium, entrance canopies and site improvement to the bus loop.
Some of these projects could be eliminated to meet current construction costs, Capps said.
Another possibility is to pull more money from the $5.2 million in critical needs funding that the state awarded Currituck County Schools this year.
Some $2.2 million originally was earmarked for the Central project, but the Board of Commissioners and the
Board of Education later agreed to keep costs to less than $1.6 million.
School officials are no doubt hoping construction at Central will run more smoothly than their current project, a new high school in Barco that is four months behind schedule.
The delays have been blamed primarily on poor coordination of work schedules and not enough personnel at the site, the school superintendent said.
General contractor Trafalgar House Construction Inc. has had four project supervisors since construction began in January. ``That certainly doesn't help things,'' Capps said. by CNB