Putnam School Board To Gather New Park View 5-8 Estimates From Subcontractors

Putnam County School Board working to gather new cost estimates from subcontractors for the new Park View School’s desired 5th-8th grade addition.

Upland Design Architect Kim Chamberlain said there is no deadline to decide on moving forward with that project, but it should be done sooner than later.

“At some point, we’re going to be putting things on the building that if we do the addition that we would not put on the building,” Chamberlain said. “For instance the back wall of where the music room, the choir room, the band room, all that, we’re going to break that up if we’re not putting an auditorium there. So obviously, we’d like to not put that brick on and then end up tearing it back off to build an auditorium.”

Chamberlain said that point would come in about three to four months when they start to order obsolete parts they would need to throw away. Director of Schools Corby King said the school board would need updated cost estimates before going to the commission.

Chamberlain said he doesn’t want to rush the subcontractors and recommends presenting the most up-to-date figures at the November County Commission meeting.

School Board Member Lynn McHenry said he believes it is the right decision to push it off for the October board meeting, but should not be pushed off further. He said that it costs the subcontractors time and money to gather the information, and it wouldn’t be right to put them in such a position.

“The smart thing to do is have all that ready and let the subs know this will be presented in the November meeting and make sure that bid is good for the November meeting and we’ll know right hen if the answer is yes or no,” McHenry said. “And if they ask us how long can we wait, how long is this bid good for,’ It’s  tonight that’s it. We need to put them on the spot to make a decision, and don’t get me wrong, I appreciate whatever decision they make for us, but they need more definite dates.”

CFO Mark McReynolds raised the issue in that the county commission is concerned that voting on the addition in November essentially guarantees a tax increase before budget committees have started. He said the process normally would be to do this in the budget committee so it could be incorporated in the certified tax rate, so there could be a conflict between what they can do and what they want to do.

McReynolds said if it doesn’t pass, the next opportunity isn’t until they have bonding capacity which is in 2025. He said he doesn’t believe they’ll keep revisiting it.