The Mt. Ararat High School project has passed another important milestone. On April 11, 2018, the State Board of Education unanimously approved the Design and Funding of our new high school. That approval, allows the District to put the project out to bid. John Hodge, Building Committee Chair, Donna Brunette, High School Principal and Superintendent Brad Smith joined PDT Architects for the presentation in Augusta. State funded projects follow a 21 Step process, with actual construction beginning at Step 20. We are now at Step 18. In this process, general contractors who want to bid on the project must be pre-approved by the State of Maine. That step was completed recently, with five firms being authorized to bid on the project. With State Board Approval, the project went out to bid on Friday, April 13th. This culminated many months of work in developing the final design and documents needed for contractors to determine their bids. As Kathy Kahill, Project Manager for PDT noted, “It’s real now, in a little over a month we will know who is going to build the project. And in two months, we’ll be under construction. And away we go!!” On April 17th, PDT provided the contractors an opportunity to walk the site in the first week of the bidding process. In addition, it gave contractors the ability to walk through the existing building so they can get a feel for what demolition will entail. The current building will be demolished immediately after the opening of the new high school in fall of 2020. Once demolished, the site of the current school will be developed as the new competition field. Bids will be opened on May 23, 2018 in a formal process at the District Office. Once verified, the project will be awarded to the “lowest qualified bidder” as required. Almost immediately, work around the site will begin starting with the construction of the new entrance road, which extends the current road further into the wooded area. You will also begin to see some tree removal by the baseball field and parking lot. Once graduation is completed, the contractors will kick into "high gear". More details will follow to provide you with specifics about how this work will impact traffic flow and access over the summer. This project is possible because so many people have volunteered countless hours, each contributing to the overall design of the building. Superintendent Smith noted, “What a delight it was to be able to talk about the project, the community support, and features of our building to the State Board of Education.” |
 |
|
|
|