Overseer hired for Cape school bond projects

The Cape Girardeau School Board on Monday approved hiring Jerry Wolsey Investigations to oversee upcoming projects that will be funded with a $20 million bond issue recently approved by voters.

Some of the services the company will provide, according to the district, include prevailing wage notifications, prevailing wage oversight, certified payroll review, Occupational Safety and Health Administration compliance, background checks, internal investigations and job-site safety.

The district will pay the company $1,250 a month for a maximum of two years.

Both superintendent Jim Welker and Neil Glass, assistant superintendent of administrative services, said they have worked with Wolsey in the past.

Welker said the Cape Girardeau School District worked with Wolsey before he retired from the Missouri Department of Labor. Welker said he also worked with Wolsey on district projects when Welker was at the Jackson School District.

Glass said Wolsey would "basically be an assistant for me" to review the certified payrolls coming in, walk on the job sites to ensure worker safety and provide general oversight.

When the district passed a $40 million bond issue in 2010, McCarthy Brothers Construction served as construction manager of the projects and provided oversight for safety and other regulations.

The district, however, will not hire a construction manager for smaller projects. Instead, a general contractor will submit certified payrolls for Wolsey's review, Glass said.

Also at the meeting, board members approved adding seventh- and eighth-grade baseball and softball programs, starting with the 2015-2016 school year.

The total cost for implementation of the programs in the first year is about $22,000, district officials said. The cost for subsequent years will be less as uniforms and equipment are placed on a routine maintenance and replacement schedule.

"We believe it will provide a lot of additional opportunities for our students at the junior high," Welker said.

Welker said upcoming sixth- and seventh-graders were surveyed to measure interest. More than 90 students said they were interested in playing baseball. More than 60 expressed an interest in playing softball.

Terry Kitchen, athletic director at the junior high school, said some area districts have seventh- and eighth-graders together on a team and others have separate teams for each grade.

"I'm going to see when we start the scheduling what kind of response we get back." he said of other districts. "My personal opinion, I hope we have a seventh-grade team and eighth-grade team so we can get more involved."

Baseball is expected to start next spring, and softball will start the next fall.

klamb@semissourian.com

388-3639

Pertinent address:

301 N. Clark St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.