Fort Smith School Board awards bid to repair Southside High School roof

FORT SMITH -- The School Board is scheduled to vote Monday on awarding a nearly $1.4 million contract to repair the roofs at Southside High School.

Six members of the seven-member board met as a committee of the whole Wednesday evening and voted to award the contract to Crawford Construction of Fort Smith. The board's vote at Monday's meeting will make the award official.

A letter to the board's Properties Committee from Deputy Superintendent Gordon Floyd said the work will entail replacing the roof on the main school building and auxiliary gym. The job also will include repairing and recoating roofs on the concession stands, restrooms and ticket booth in the Jim Rowland Stadium.

The total contract amount was $1,376,900, Floyd said.

Floyd told board members Wednesday the roof on the high school has been in need of replacement for some time. Vice President Susan McFerran said board members received complaints about the roof and she was glad it was being addressed.

A hail storm in May increased the need for a new roof, Floyd said. He said insurance will pay just more than $1 million to fix the hail damage, leaving the district to pay about $350,000 out of pocket.

Crawford's was the lowest of three bids on the project. The other companies were Beshears Construction and SSI Inc., Floyd said in the letter. He wrote Copeland Roofing submitted the low bid but withdrew it because of a scrivener's error.

Work on the roof of the high school building will begin after school is out in the spring so students won't be disturbed by the noise, said Dennis Siebenmorgen, district director of buildings and grounds.

He said work on the other parts of the project, the gym and buildings at the stadium, could begin as soon as the board approves the contract Monday and Crawford subcontracts the work to a roofer.

The district wants to do about $10 million in renovation and additional work on the high school. The plans are part of the district's facilities plan it submitted to the state for money.

According to the facilities plan, the project consists of kitchen and dining expansion and addition; a new media center and administration addition with classrooms on the second floor; conversion of existing first floor administration to support space; conversion of existing media area to academic space; a new band practice and a rehearsal room.

The district is in the process of updating the facilities plan, which would total about $83 million if money is approved by the state and voters approve a property tax increase.

School Board members voted in November 2015 to put a millage increase before voters in the September 2016 school election but voted in May to delay consideration of the election until April, according to School Board minutes.

NW News on 01/20/2017

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