Nielsen Builders Harrisonburg Virginia

Daily News Record
Friday, June 8, 2007

Luray School Bids Within Range

Page Schools May Still Need $4 million More

By Jamie Turner

Luray - School officials felt a sense of relief as they opened the bids for construction of a new Luray High School.
Architect Michael Hall of Fanning/Howey and Associates tore open three envelopes during the bid opening May 31 to find numbers in line with the budget for school construction.
The low bidder, Nielsen Construction of Harrisonburg, submitted a proposal of $27.5 million to complete the site work and building of a new Luray High School. School officials said the bid meshed with estimates for completing the project.

PCHS Bid Already Accepted
Last month, school officials approved a bid of $25.2 million for construction of a new Page County High School, also from Nielsen Construction.
The Page County School Board plans to build the two high schools simultaneously, with a projected opening date of fall 2009.
The combined costs of both projects totals $60.7 million. The Page County Board of Supervisors approved $56 million for the two projects last summer.
" We are in the ballpark," said School Superintendent Randy Thomas. "It's just a matter of sitting down and hammering out a final number."

Earlier Bids Rejected
This marks the second time each school has been put out to bid.
Earlier this year, bids to build both high schools came in about $12 million over budget. The Page County School Board decided to rebid the two projects after making some changes to the building designs.
School officials cut out about $9 million of items from the architectural designs. The two identical schools, however, were not reduced in size as Nielsen will be constructing two 123,644-square-foot buildings.
The School Board planned to meet with Nielsen Construction this week to negotiate a final contract price on building Luray High School.
"I feel really good about it," said Sharon Lucas, the board's chairwoman. "At this point, we have a few numbers to work out but we have a low bidder."
Even with the new bids, the School Board will likely have to ask for about $4 million in additional funding from the Board of Supervisors.
"We knew we were going to have to ask for some." said Lucas. "It's been almost a year since they approved $56 million of funding and construction costs continue to rise."
The cost of the two projects has risen about a half a percent each month since last year, officials say.
Still, Lucas believes the price to build the two new schools is feasible.
"It's very doable." she said. "It looks like we will have two new high schools in Page County."
Site work at the new PCHS site already is under way and will be completed this August. Construction will begin soon after.
Site work at the new Luray High School site off Leaksville Road will begin after a final contract has been approved and the Board of Supervisors agree to fund the additional monies needed to complete the projects.
"These recent bid openings have been a lifting spirit for all of us," Lucas said. "I actually felt the weight of the world be lifted off my shoulders when we opened the bids for LHS."

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