MANISTEE — Manistee Area Public Schools has found itself an excavation company for work related to its bond project.
During the district’s regular school board meeting Wednesday, the board approved with a 4-0 vote a resolution to accept a bid from Swidorski Bros. Excavating, LLC in the amount of $527,900, contingent upon the company’s agreement with the terms and conditions of the required documentation.
Board President Jim Thompson, treasurer Justine Slawinski and board member Ashley Sensabaugh were absent from the meeting.
“There was a bid that we received that works well, and it is a local vendor,” said Ron Stoneman, MAPS superintendent. “We feel that we’d like to retain that bid. I think that it helps us locally with the project and it helps us move forward with that in place. I think that’s helpful for this process.”
In May 2021 voters approved the district’s $30.855 million bond proposal to allow for the renovation of the Kennedy Elementary building for consolidation of all elementary grades, the construction of a middle school gymnasium and the demolition of the Jefferson Elementary building and 1927 former high school building.
MAPS hired TowerPinkster as its architecture firm and Christman Company as its construction management firm.
Board member Paul Wehrmeister said he was happy a local business was awarded the bid, and Howard Vaas, the district’s business manager, said he hopes more local contractors will be motivated to participate in the bidding process.
“Even if they’re not a general trade provider, maybe the Christman group is willing to work with them to help set them up with other contractors as subs. Anything that we can do to help keep money in town and of course get more bang for our buck here, we’re going to work hard here to make that happen.”
Plans for the bond project went to bid in October, following a process designated by the Michigan Department of Treasury. Stoneman said fewer bids were received than are typically expected, and as part of Wednesday’s resolution the district rejected all other bids associated with the bond project.
“With the current strain on building supplies and the challenges our state is facing with work force, few bids were submitted, and most costs were higher than anticipated,” Stoneman said. “The outcome was less than ideal and created the necessity for us to reconsider our next steps in the project plan.”
According to Vaas, “it’s disappointing, but it’s not bad news.”
“There’s just more work to do. I think we all kind of felt like we ran a marathon and got to the point that we went out for bid, and then we figured out it’s a triathlon,” he said on Wednesday. “… Tomorrow at 4 p.m. the group reconvenes with Christman and TowerPinkster. They’ve been brainstorming ideas to increase participation in bidding and also looking at some other ideas and things that we could do differently that might be not only perhaps be cost-saving, but make things more attractive to bidders.
“It’s just massaging this thing to live within our means.”
The district will solicit bids for the project at a later date.
“Although we still firmly believe in the integrity of our plan, based upon current market conditions, we felt it was best practice to slow down the process to reevaluate our position,” said Theresa Anderson, board vice president and member of the facilities committee. “We want to be certain that all approvals associated with this project allow the district to realize the best possible outcome for the project, and we want to take the time to get it right.”
Vaas said the district will have to think “outside the box in our approach” in order to get the project to the construction phase.
“We may need to revisit our project scope and perhaps break down project elements into smaller pieces in order to attract some of the smaller, more regional companies that may not otherwise be able to bid on a very large-scale project,” he said. “Either way, we have to do the work to determine the most equitable way forward for the district to complete the elements of our plan.”
Updates regarding the district’s bond project can be found at chipslead.org/project/maps_vision_progress.