April 20, 2016 at 4:57 p.m.
Savings from mild winter to be used to fund overdue SDR maintenance projects
Some projects delayed for years due to budget problems
Savings from mild winter to be used to fund overdue SDR maintenance projects
According to district officials, the problem has been made worse by a lack of funds in the maintenance budget for repairs.
But what Mother Nature helped cause she has now helped to eradicate.
Lower snow removal and heating fuel oil costs this year, the result of a milder than normal winter, have left a healthier balance in the maintenance budget and provided an opportunity for the district to complete over a quarter of a million dollars' worth of long-postponed asphalt and concrete repairs around most of the buildings, district officials say.
Superintendent Kelli Jacobi said the list of projects the school board was asked to approve Monday night are items that were put on the back burner while the district struggled to find funds. "Some of these have been on the list for years," Jacobi said. "This year we have funds because of the lower cost of snow removal and heating costs this year. So we're trying to get as many of these things taken care of that have been on the list. If you have gone by some of the schools, you have seen the condition of some of the parking lots, the walks or whichever piece needed to dealt with, you'll know exactly what this means and why we're doing it."
In the case of the bigger schools, Jacobi said some paving has been done piecemeal to address the worst areas because to do it all at one time would have been cost prohibitive.
All of the bids were passed unanimously by the operations and strategic planning committee and the full board followed suit.
The board voted unanimously to accept the following bids:
Musson Brothers, Inc. bid $34,657 to repave approximately 23,474 square feet of the parking lot at Central Intermediate School and to remove an existing sidewalk that needs attention
Musson Brothers, Inc. bid $8,975 to repave two sections of the Pelican Elementary School parking lot.
Musson Brothers, Inc. bid $15,850 to repave approximately 9,000 square feet of asphalt near door #15 in the back of James Williams Middle School.
C&M Concrete, Inc. bid $25,950 to remove and replace about 5670 square feet of concrete, pavers and soil near the entrance to the middle school.
Musson Brothers, Inc. bid $6,590 repave about 2,626 square feet near the boiler room entrance and remove an existing sidewalk at the high school.
Musson Brothers, Inc. bid $159,000 to repave approximately 151,161 square feet of the student parking lot at the high school.
The board also approved two bids to remove and replace carpeting at the two elementary schools and the high school, and perform asbestos abatement on one of the projects.
Carpetiers Carpet One submitted the low bids for the three carpet projects, while Badger Environmental submitted the only bid for the abatement of asbestos that will be released when the old carpet in the high school band area and some of the classrooms in Crescent Elementary School.
Jacobi said the abatement is necessary because, as was the common practice several years ago, carpeting was laid on top of tile containing asbestos as a way to avoid having to remove the tile.
"There is no choice now, because the tile is going to come up when we remove the carpeting," Jacobi said. "The asbestos will then be released into the air and abatement will have to be done."
The bids from Carpetiers Carpet One were broken down by building, with the high school band room coming in at $11,474.40, Crescent Elementary classrooms at $29,300 and $53,045 for several classrooms and adjoining hallways at Pelican Elementary School.
The abatement in the two buildings will cost $17,200.
All of the projects will be done over the summer when school is not in session.
In other business, the board approved salary increases for all district employees for the 2016-17 school year at the current Consumer Price Index of .12 percent.
"This is the maximum amount we can offer professional employees who are represented by a union because of Act 10," Jacobi said. "Because we have to offer this to professional staff, we are including all support personnel and administrators at this rate, to be fair to everyone."
The board also approved the purchase of a 2016 Chevrolet box van with lift for use for food service delivery. It will replace the 1999 Izuzu the district currently uses that has 166,500 miles on it and suffers from extensive rust and numerous mechanical problems and is only driven for short distances due to safety concerns.
Jacobi said that at a recent meeting of the operations and strategic planning committee, a suggestion was made by committee member David Holperin to try to find a used van online that meets the district's specifications. Jeff Zdroik, supervisor of plant operations, reportedly checked over 2,500 vehicles online, with the closest that came to meeting the specifications was one located in California that would not meet the district's needs because it didn't meet all of the specifications, primarily the lift was too small.
"It wouldn't work for us because of the various size carts we put on it," Zdroik said. "Also, the lifting capacity was wrong. We came close on that one, and I looked at a lot of them."
Board vice president Judy Conlin said she didn't feel comfortable searching online for a vehicle to purchase.
"We live in a society that is online, and probably most of us do things that are online with websites," Conlin said. "But I have a concern when we direct our administration to do that. If you looked at that many vehicles, I know that took a lot of your time, which is not free. I also had a concern that if we are going to be doing those certain things online, what do you do if it's a distance away, how do you get it here? And my bigger concern is, if we purchase something online, and there's a problem, what recourse do we have?"
Holperin disagreed with Conlin, arguing that when it comes to making vehicle and machinery purchases, the district owes it to the taxpayers to explore ways to cut costs, if possible.
"It can't be done in a moment's notice, but there are markets for these kinds of things," Holperin said.
Dennis O'Brien sided with Holperin, especially if the need is identified further out in time to give Zdroik more time to fully examine the used market online. But that, too, presents problems.
"Often, when it's out there online for sale, most of the time you have to make a decision to buy it right then," O'Brien said.
He also said that if the lift was the primary sticking point in the specifications, maybe the lift could have been purchased separately to lower the overall cost of the van.
"I agree with David, if we are going to do this kind of purchase, we should have more knowledge and foreknowledge before we're asked to make a call," O'Brien said.
In the end, the board voted unanimously to purchase the van from Rhinelander GM for $42,033.
In other business, the board:
• Approved an additional $3,000 for the girls' soccer team to fund a JV2 team due to an increased number of girls playing the sport this season.
• Approved the creation of a girls' golf team, to be funded at no cost to the district.
• Approved the bid price for the purchase of copy paper for the 2016-17 school year.
• Approved changes to the retirement, sick leave and funeral leave language in the professional employee handbook.
• Approved an updated list of attorneys who can act as independent hearing officers in the event a professional employee complaint reaches the Step 3 level.
• Approved the second reading of new policies for both professional staff and support staff concerning lactation in the workplace.
Jamie Taylor may be reached at jtaylor @lakelandtimes.com.
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