Barbara Lawlor, Nederland.  Boulder Valley School District officials have announced that the Nederland Schools bond construction project slated to begin this spring will be delayed until late summer. The basic reason for the delay is too much work for too few subcontractors and bids coming in over budget. The board will look at adjusting the design as well as looking for companies that want to work after the busy summer construction season.

Last week, BVSD administrators Rob Price, Assistant Superintendent of Operational Services, and Katheryn Zeeb, Director of Bond Planning and Engineering, led a public meeting at Nederland Middle Senior High School to discuss the delay and possible solutions.

Five contractors were asked to bid on the project in February and only one submitted a bid. It was $4.5 million over budget. Since then, says Price, they have tried to identify cost cuts that might work and managed to get close: $2 million over budget by May 7.

“The next step is we have to cut drastically from both projects, including adjusting the time schedule to allow us to get better bids. We will be getting on schedule late fall into winter.”

He explained that they had set aside an inflation budget but need additional money to compensate for the oversight that factors into the location problems: the cost of travel to the mountains.

When one parent asked why they couldn’t access local contractors, he explained that they did.

“We asked for subcontractors in August and September and had community meetings but we didn’t have much input. Kathy and I were faced with the same decision a year ago and took a lot of heat. The economy is elevated so high that it affects bond work all over the Front Range. The subcontractors would rather do summer projects down below.”

Parents wanted to know why they weren’t informed sooner than they were. The delay was announced on May 16.

“The final construction cost estimate for both projects combined was $2.2 million over budget. We have decided to delay starting construction until late summer to allow more time to negotiate a satisfactory price with a contractor. I realize this comes as an unwelcome surprise and regret having to give you this news,” said Zweeb.

The district will issue a Request for Proposal for a new Construction Manager/General Contractor within a few weeks, says Zweeb.

Specific schedules will be established when the firm is contracted. She anticipates pricing will be more competitive as subcontractors free up from summer work. Over the summer, the design team will use the time to further scrutinize the design to look for ways to reduce cost, while maintaining the integrity of the projects. The contractor will minimize the impact on the schools and the learning environments.

The asbestos abatement at the high school and the innovation projects at both schools will be first priorities this summer.

“But this will happen,” says Price. “If we garner enough subcontractor interest, the price will go down.” He says $400,000 was figured in to deal with Ned Lake (the high school parking lot,) and they have to figure out a different way to deal with it.

The design team and the staff will be scrutinizing where the middle and high school lockers will be, what the multi purpose room will look like and other projects that were in the master plan. They have a few extra months to put the pieces together.

(Originally published in the May 31, 2018, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)