From left, Hal Taylor, maintenance and transportation supervisor for Cleveland City Schools; architectural consultant Brian Templeton; and Casey Conn, project manager for Tri-Conn Construction, review cost-cutting alternatives for the Cleveland High School gymnasium project.CLEVELAND, Tenn. - Cleveland City Schools is working with Tri-Con Construction to significantly reduce the company's $11.245 million bid to build a new gymnasium for Cleveland High School.
The 50-year-old Raider Dome, which housed the school's former gymnasium, was closed in December and demolished during the summer.
On Wednesday, the Cleveland city school board voted 7-0 to issue a letter of intent to Tri-Con Construction and to award the bid on Oct. 16 after reviewing cost-cutting tweaks to the project.
The vote was made after a "value engineering" proposal of changes was presented to the panel by Casey Conn, project manager for Tri-Con Construction; architectural consultant Brian Templeton; and Hal Taylor, supervisor of maintenance and transportation for the school system.
"They have done some very hard decision-making at looking at ways to get it within budget, and I feel really good about it based on preliminary discussions," said Dr. Martin Ringstaff, director of Cleveland City Schools.
Although Tri-Con Construction made the lowest base bid on the construction project, the school board had previously voted to cap expenses at $11 million for the overall project. The first phase of the project - the demolition of the former gymnasium - amounted to $315,000.
A "big step" toward reducing expenses would involve changing the heating and air conditioning system from a water-based system to a gas-based system, similar to what the school already uses for 60 classrooms in the nearby east wing, Templeton said. That would impact the project by $429,000, he said.
The elimination of a new lobby would amount to another $408,000 in savings, Templeton said.
The loss of the lobby would entail the loss of some extra restroom facilities and the transition of the school's concession area into a café space, he said.
A concern voiced by Ringstaff was the potential elimination of acoustic wall treatments for the new gym, which would amount to $24,000 in savings at the expense of creating microphone echoes.
He recommended exploring the school system's facility maintenance budget to fund the acoustic wall paneling if it could not fit within the construction budget.
School officials are also grappling with how to include a weight room space within the project.
As presented in requests for proposals, the weight room was envisaged as an additional 3,500-square-foot space to the base project. Tri-Con bid $360,000 to construct it.
The weight room space is used all day long by the physical education classes, said Autumn O'Bryan, principal of Cleveland High School.
Taylor urged board members to wait until hard numbers could be presented before adding features back into the project.
Paul Leach is based in Cleveland. Email him at paul.leach.press@gmail.com.