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$945K for parking, restroom upgrades
by Gregory R. Norfleet · News · May 21, 2015


Two contractors last week won a total of $945,000 worth of facility projects in the 15-year plan to improve West Branch Community Schools.


The Board of Education on May 11 approved a bid of nearly $653,000 from S&S Plumbing of Marengo to remodel restrooms and locker rooms in the north end of Hoover Elementary. The board also approved a bid of about $292,000 from All American Concrete of West Liberty to add 43 parking spaces and a wraparound sidewalk to the east high school parking lot.

The school district received only one bid on the restroom project and received three bids on the parking lot project. The work was estimated at about $285,000 for the parking lot and $545,000 for the restroom work.

The three board members present — Mike Colbert, Deb Schreiber and Richard Paulus — unanimously approved the bids, but with one change to the restroom work. Both projects would start after school gets out on May 27, and finish by Aug. 1.

The restroom bid includes almost $320,000 for restroom improvements and $330,000 for remodeling the locker rooms. Schreiber said the school board asked for bid breakdowns but did not get it from the sole bidder, and she objected to refurbishing the kindergarten restrooms aside from improved lighting. She wanted to see what it would cost to just upgrade the lighting only since the rest of the work seems more focused on “aesthetics.”

Superintendent Kevin Hatfield recommended refurbishing the kindergarten restrooms, agreeing that those restrooms are in the best shape of all the ones that need to be redone, but they still need to be redone.

Colbert and Paulus initially said they would like to see the kindergarten restrooms refurbished, but eventually supported Schreiber’s motion to award the contract to S&S with the change to the kindergarten restroom work.

“I feel very strongly” about this, Schreiber said.

HBK Engineering’s Brian Boelk said the contractor would likely be willing to work out the changes.

The high school summer work included an alternate bid for rough grading for a future softball field. The 15-year Master Facilities Plan creates a new entrance off of Herbert Hoover Highway that lines up with a proposed road to the relatively new Meadows subdivision to the north. The new high school entrance would cut through the current softball field, so the plan suggests moving the field to just east of the east parking lot, but the hill needs to be flattened first.

Bids ranged from $58,000 from Ricklefs of Anamosa to $131,000 from Bockenstedt Excavating of Iowa City. Hatfield said the “vision” of the 15-year plan is “exactly right”: Putting the softball field there and turning the baseball field to put the fields back-to-back would mean one concession stand and restroom area, making the two fields operate more efficiently.

However, the cost of turning the baseball field that otherwise needs no improvements may mean that project can wait, he said.