BIDS HIGH ON VO-TECH SCHOOL

Cape Girardeau school administrators are looking for ways to reduce costs after construction bids for the district's planned vocational-technical school came in nearly 25 percent higher than projected.

Three contractors submitted bids, which were opened Thursday. Kiefner Brothers Construction was the lowest bidder with a base bid of $10,991,000. Also submitting bids were Penzel Construction, $11,245,000, and Huffman Construction, $11,200,000.

The building will be built on property west of Kingshighway and Southern Expressway. The property borders a gravel section of Silver Springs Road.

The project was expected to cost between $7 million and $8 million.

Business manager Dr. Steve del Vecchio said higher construction costs caused the difference in submitted bids and estimates. "All the bids are coming in high, I believe even at the university," he said.

Del Vecchio said the school district is working with Kiefner Construction to reduce the cost. Other contractors were not contacted about the bid adjustment because "you have to go with the low bidder," he said.

Del Vecchio would not detail what revisions would be made to reduce the bid amount. "We're looking at everything," he said.

School board members are scheduled to award the bid for the project at a noon meeting Thursday at the board office, 61 N. Clark.

Administrators earlier said the building is slated for completion in September 2000.

The vo-tech school has met several obstacles since voters approved a $14 million bond issue and 69-cent tax increase in April 1997. The measures set in motion a two-phase master plan for construction of two school buildings and renovations to seven other buildings.

The first phase of the plan includes major renovations for nearly every building in the district. The renovations are expected to make schools more comfortable and efficient in preparation for 400 to 450 students per building. They are to be completed by 2000.

The second phase would begin in 1999 or 2000 but only if voters approved a second $14 million bond issue. The second phase would not require an additional tax levy increase. Plans include construction of a high school and continued renovations and repairs.

At the end of the second phase the district would have kindergarten through fourth-grade elementary schools, a fifth- and sixth-grade center, a seventh- and eighth-grade center, a ninth-through-12th-grade high school and the vo-tech school. The current vo-tech would be renovated to house district offices, centralized maintenance and districtwide programs.

Construction of the vo-tech school was halted in March 1998 when 2.8 acres of swampy ground was declared a natural wetlands by the Army Corps of Engineers and Missouri Department of Natural Resources. Natural wetlands are protected by federal law.

However, the law allows mitigation -- a process of offering replacement wetlands. The district essentially traded the 2.8 acres of wetlands at the site for seven acres of wetlands north of the city. The district paid $10,700 for the property, the amount the federal government would have paid the property owner, Martha Vandivort, to revert the farmland to wetlands.

A contract for site preparation also came in above the district's estimate in 1998. The district awarded the bid to the low bidder, Nip Kelley Construction Co., with a base bid of $193,000. Architects had estimated site preparation costs at $186,400 but said that $193,000 seemed to be a reasonable cost.