VO-TECH SCHOOL BID OK'D

The Cape Girardeau Board of Education approved a scaled-back design and bid for construction of the Cape Girardeau Vocational Career Center Monday night.

Bids submitted for the project two weeks ago were some 25 percent over the district's estimates. Administrators then began meeting with low bidder Kiefner Brothers Construction Co. to determine ways to reduce the cost of the project.

School board members adjourned temporarily into an executive session to consider changes in the building specifications and contract with the construction company. After reconvening the meeting some 30 minutes later, the board voted unanimously to approve the revised bid for $9,854,500.

Board President Dr. Ferrell Ervin said vo-tech school director Harold Tilley worked with architects to revise the school's design. Tilley also communicated with vo-tech staff to ensure the changes would accommodate the school's curriculum.

The result was a plan that postpones some construction of parking lots and downgrades some fixtures and equipment but leaves the educational areas of the building intact, said Ervin.

"We looked at various areas where there could be reductions and agreed to four potential areas," he said. "There's no situation where we're not providing the floor space teachers said we had to have to provide the curriculum we needed."

The four areas altered in the cost reduction were site work modification; deletion of some casework; deletion of kitchen equipment; and altering heating, air and electrical specifications.

The board opted to postpone development of some parking lots and installation of directional signs in the site work modification category. The work will most likely be performed as the district begins construction of the high school campus in the future, Ervin said.

The bid reduction also calls for deletion of some shelves and cabinets and for using old equipment rather than purchasing new equipment for the culinary arts department. Grant opportunities and other, less-expensive options to purchase the equipment will be researched by school administrators.

While there were some alterations to the heating, air-conditioning and electrical specifications, Ervin said the building will have an adequate power supply and will be climate controlled. "It will all be there, but modifications will apply to the kind of lighting units that will be there and how they were going to be installed," he said.

Ervin said the original specifications included the district's "dream of dreams" for the building. The modifications are a more realistic application of those dreams, he said.

"Now there's a realization the funding doesn't support that dream of dreams, and we're looking at what would be practical and we could financially support," said Ervin.