State school bond projects benefit companies

JOPLIN, Mo. -- Months after voters around the state approved bonds for school building projects, contractors and architectural firms are seeing the benefits.

"It's definitely a big boost for our workload," said Kyle Denham, with Patterson Latimer Jones Brannon Denham Inc., a Joplin architectural firm. "Schools are the majority of our work."

His company is putting together plans for schools in Webb City and McDonald County, where voters this spring gave their approval to issue bonds for the projects.

Greg Bricker, senior vice president with investment firm George K. Baum and Co. in Kansas City, said of the 21 districts around the state for which his firm underwrote and assisted with bond issues, 20 were successful in the April election. Total investment in those districts came to $250 million, he said, with the biggest being $96.5 million in Springfield.

Another investment firm, L.J. Hart and Co. in St. Louis, noted 23 of the 25 bond issues in which it was involved passed, for $150 million, Bricker said.

And that's just some of the bond issues he said passed in April, which he called "the most remarkable election date I have seen in 20 years."

He "conservatively" estimated the value of school projects statewide at more than a half-billion dollars.

He said the projects will provide a positive effect on the state's economy, and he noted that prevailing wage laws mean all the school construction jobs are high paying.

Richard Davidson, president of the Neosho Board of Education, said that while that's good economic news, it means districts are having a tougher time finding contractors whose schedules aren't full.

"The number of contractors are a finite number," he said. "We're hoping to be there sooner than later."

Davidson said the Neosho school district hopes to begin work on a new elementary school in September. He said administrators hope to send out bid packets this month.

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Information from: The Joplin Globe, http://www.joplinglobe.com