Sandy Feretto

Redwood Times

The Southern Humboldt Unified School District met in a special meeting on Friday, Sept. 7 to approve awarding the contract to Dinsmore Construction to construct the “school within a school,” the new middle school buildings at South Fork High School.

Superintendent Catherine Scott told the board she met with Kevin Tedder of Seminson Architects, Inc. and Dirk Dinsmore of Dinsmore Construction the day before in Fortuna to go over all of the bids that had been gathered. The proposed cost for the buildings is the guaranteed maximum price of $3,513,885, which includes 10% contingency for change orders.

Tedder explained the initial quote was on a cost-per-square-foot basis. Now, the subcontractors have “sharpened their pencils,” and the original cost estimates are basically even with the quote.

It is anticipated that the Division of the State Architect may add some specific details and those will be covered by the contingency percentage that is included in the guaranteed maximum price.

The guaranteed maximum price is based on what is in the plans.

Superintendent Scott echoed some of the boards concern about the necessity of more discussion about modernization versus new construction and how to balance that with the bond funds and all the necessary projects.

Tedder said that the architects are addressing that by looking into the future and looking at the bond fund as each project gets designed and submitted to the contractor and the DSA. He said that by February it should be possible to have a general view of how much most of the projects will cost.

Dave Taylor of Semsinson Architects is watching the big picture of bond sales keeping in line with the pace of design and construction.

The board had a lot of questions for Tedder. Some members of the board had concerns about the drainage at the high school, and it was explained that as each building is done the storm drains will be augmented and tied together with the rest.

There were other design and concept questions from the board and it was determined that there should be a board meeting with the architect, the contractor and the architect's plans, where individual concerns and questions can be addressed.

The next regular board meeting is Thursday, Sept. 13 at 4:30 p.m. at Redway School.