KINGSPORT — Jackson Elementary School’s new secure entrance is a step closer to construction, as are repairs to the cracked tennis court surface at Dobyns-Bennett High School.
The Board of Education at its regular Thursday night meeting recommended low bids for those and other projects.
“That’s a relief for the board to finally have a (new secure entrance) solution for Jackson,” Superintendent Lyle Ailshie said.
The Jackson project for a redesigned front entrance was part of a combined low bid of $380,640 from Beuris Construction, grouping it with other projects where Beuris was also the low bidder that would have cost an extra $11,600 individually.
All city schools have a locked entrance requiring buzz in, but Jackson and Cora Cox Academy are the last two lacking a redesigned entrance.
Separated, the Jackson secure entrance was $297,520, while a Johnson cooler/freezer and other work was $105,000 and a Lincoln cooler/freezer and other work was $170,400.
Those amounts include estimates for the actual freezers and coolers because no bids were received and they will be rebid and up for Board of Mayor and Aldermen approval in June. Finance director David Frye said a short time frame and miscommunications caused the lack of bids but that both would be addressed in the rebid.
The BOE recommended approving the $380,6540 bid plus a 6 percent contingency of $22,839. It and other bids will have to win approval from the BMA.
As for previously approved projects, Ailshie and David Carper, facilities supervisor, said the conversion of Legion Center to Reserve Officer Training Corps use and resurfacing of the Robinson Middle School parking lots should begin soon. In addition, Carper said the new lights for the J. Fred Johnson football stadium should start to go up around May 11.
However, the pending bid package for the J. Fred Johnson stadium expansion and renovation — to cost an estimated $4.2 million — won’t go out for another two weeks or so, Ailshie said. He said officials are looking at making some changes to the foundation specifications for potential cost savings.
The BOE also approved a tennis court surface repair low bid of $39,607 from Competition Athletic Surfaces, with a contingency of $6,376, which is a 6 percent contingency of $2,376 plus an extra $4,000.
The bid includes 1,750 linear feet of taping over surface cracks, but the extra contingency is to go toward possible additional taping at $15 per linear foot.
Carper said resurfacing the court would cost $100,000 and a complete redo more. He said the repairs in the low bid should last three to 10 years.
In the long term, school officials are looking at possibly relocating and expanding the tennis facilities.
As for the proposed 2013-14 general purpose school budget of just more than $67.1 million, which asks the city to increase its appropriation by $1,811,105, from about $9.1 million to $11,612,505, it will go before the BMA at 3:30 p.m. Monday in the upstairs conference room at city hall.
The federal projects fund is $4,405,423, while the special projects fund is $1,076,458.