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Ignacio school construction costs escalate

Ignacio School District is projected to have around $190,000 left when current construction projects are finished, a representative from the project architects told the school board on Feb. 12.

Around $1.1 million will need to be transferred from the district's capital reserve fund for the transportation building, or right at $2 million to include the new baseball field, Brian Calhoun said.

He reported that the mid school finished around $500,000 under budget, while the elementary school was $500,000 over budget. The new administration building finished out at just under $1.8 million, around $120,000 above the original budget because of some things that were added.

The high school is on schedule to be finished in June, Calhoun said. It was originally budgeted at around $18 million, but additions like the performing arts auditorium, baseball field, and the new football field and track surfaces have pushed that up to $22.2 million.

All the project budgets included contingency funds. Calhoun said, "We were hoping to see some additional savings in the other projects and not spend the entire contingency, but we're on track to spend a good portion of that."

The high school construction budget started with around $1 million for contingencies. Around $325,000 is left, Calhoun said. He noted that Superintendent Rocco Fuschetto managed to get $240,000 back from the state. It was tied in with the elementary school construction that was partly funded by a Colorado Department of Education BEST grant.

"You can finish all current projects. We anticipate around $190,000 left over," Calhoun said.

Asbestos removal at the high school was one of the things that pushed up costs, Fuschetto said. That cost was expected to be around $30,000. It turned out to be $363,000.

The district still has to do the new high school baseball field, which wasn't in the original bond issue budget, and build a new transportation building.

Calhoun said the transportation building was budgeted at a little over $1 million, but the estimate now is $1.288 million, including land and utilities. As construction has picked up in the area, construction costs have skyrocketed, he said.

"We spent all day today on the transportation building, looking at ways to do things ourselves to save money," Fuschetto said. Doing the vehicle lift in-house would save around $100,000, he said.

There was a brief reference to purchase of 35 acres for the facility, but Fuschetto said that was for discussion in executive session. The site does not have water and sewer. Around 5.5 acres will have security fencing.

Calhoun said of the current $1.288 million cost estimate, "That's still a fuzzy number at this point."

Fuschetto told the Times the money will probably have to come from capital reserve funds. He said the original bond issue budget listed money for land acquisition for the transportation building.

The proposal is for a 60x100 foot metal building with garage doors on opposite sides for three bus maintenance bays, one of those a wash bay, and a bay for smaller vehicles. It also has offices, storage, a training room and bathrooms.

"Is this going to be the Cadillac version?" board member Luke Kirk asked.

"We started with the Cadillac version and realized we can't do it," Calhoun said. "It's a Ford. It's taking care of business. There isn't a lot of fluff there."

Board president Toby Roderick commented that Transportation Director Clyde Pearson "has been promised a new building seven or eight times. We could push it off for two years, but the cost will be higher."

The baseball field is part of the $4 million cost increase at the high school, Calhoun said. "That project is kind of ready to go," he said. The cost estimate for the field with synthetic turf is $850,000, versus $750,000 as an add-on when the high school was originally bid.

"We are asking FCI (the high school general contractor) to re-bid that," Calhoun said. If the district doesn't like that bid, it can do open bidding for the field.

The artificial turf costs $250,000 to $300,000 more than natural grass but has lower maintenance costs over the years. The sub-grade and drainage system for the field are already done, Fuschetto said.

The elementary, middle and high school construction and the renovation of the old IHS wrestling building into the new administration building have been funded by the $50 million bond issue that passed by one vote in 2011. The state BEST grant to pay part of the elementary school cost was contingent on voter approval of the bond issue.