County School Board Approves $17M In Renovations
Article by Megan Williams as published in the Daily News Record on Saturday, February 16, 2019
Photo by Zack Sanborn, Lantz Construction
HARRISONBURG – After tabling a vote on a bid for extensive renovations at John C. Myers and Fulks Run elementary schools on Monday, the Rockingham County School Board approved a bid at a special meeting on Friday afternoon.
The board was prepared to accept the lower of the two bids at its meeting Monday night, but, at the recommendation of Superintendent Oskar Scheikl, postponed the decision to give the division more time to renegotiate a subcontract on one of the bids.
Both elementary schools need similar upgrades, which will include air conditioning and electrical work, as well as cosmetic work to the interiors. John C. Myers, built as a middle school, also has spaces, including multiple shop classrooms, that don’t work for an elementary school; they will be converted.
The division received bids from Lantz Construction Co. of Broadway and Nielsen Builders of Harrisonburg. The Lantz bid was the lower of the two, with a price tag of just over $17 million for both projects. However, after an electrical subcontractor was added, the bid came in at nearly $17.4 million.
Nielsen’s sealed bid came in at a few hundred thousand dollars more than the Lantz bid, according to the division.
Board members approved the Lantz contract.
The renovation projects will begin this spring, carry on through the summer and extend into part of next school year.
Although they will begin at the same time, Scheikl said he anticipates that the Fulks Run renovation will take less time because it’s a smaller school.
The renovation of Fulks Run and John C. Myers will conclude a plan to update the county elementary schools.
In September, $18.7 million work of renovation work was completed at Pleasant Valley and John Wayland elementary schools.
Contact Megan Williams at 574-6272, @DNR_Learn or mwilliams@dnronline.com
Photo Caption: Members of the Lantz Precon Team survey Fulks Run Elementary School a few days before Bid Day on January 31st.