School District Puts Athletic Field Complex On Hold

The new Glenwood Athletic Complex is officially on hold.

Demolition to the current Ram Memorial Field complex was scheduled to have started last Friday, but work was suspended Thursday after the Glenwood Community School District had no bids to open for the $4.9 million construction project. One construction company did initially submit a bid, but it was withdrawn prior to the bidding deadline.

“We’re in a holding pattern,” said GCSD Superintendent Devin Embray on Friday. “We did not receive any official bids on the construction part of the project. As of now, we can’t move forward on the project. We are suspending everything right now.”

The demolition part of the contract has been awarded to Mark Hughes Construction. Demolition of the existing Glenwood Athletic Complex was to begin Friday morning and was expected to wrap up Oct. 23.
The construction phase of the new complex was to begin Oct. 24 and wrap up Aug. 1, 2019.

That timeline now appears to be in jeopardy.

The district had planned a demolition ceremony for Friday morning but it was indefinitely postponed following the announcement the project did not having a willing construction partner.

A meeting is planned for this week with HSR, Inc., the district’s LaCrosse, Wisc,-based architectural firm, to discuss the possible reasons for the lack of bids and what the next steps will be to get the project back on track.
Embray did say HSR was “surprised” by the lack of bids and the firm would be sending “their whole team” down for the meeting.

If all goes well in that meeting, according to Embray, HSR will examine the construction specifications and make adjustments to the bid for a new package that could go out as early as next week.

The question remains as to why the original project received no bids, however. Embray speculated there could be a “multitude of issues” from a spike in materials costs or an issue in the specifications to a tight 10-month construction window or a busy construction market.

“I think it will all get hashed out in our meeting with the architects as we try to get back to a baseline where we think we can move forward with the project,” Embray said. “We don’t want to delay the project any more than we have to so it would be our hope that we would be able to come to a consensus this week. We want to get a bid pack out as soon as possible.”

If that new bid package comes back at a substantially higher price, Embray said things could be cut from the project or a re-design could be possible. Both scenarios could potentially stall the project further.

Embray didn’t rule out the possibility the construction start date could be pushed back to spring 2019.

“We’re still being pretty positive about this, about being able to make it happen,” Embray said. “We’re obviously still going to continue to fundraise for our turf, we’re still going to move forward with everything, we don’t want anything to stop. We consider this a bump in the road and we’re trying to figure out why we didn’t get bids.”

The athletic complex project is being paid for by a voter-approved 10-year, Physical Plant and Equipment Levy (PPEL) that will cover nearly $3.7 million of the $4.9 million price tag. The remaining funds for the project will come from the district’s Secure an Advanced Vision for Education (SAVE) monies it receives through a one-cent sales tax levy.
A capital fundraising campaign spearheaded by the Youth Action Committee (YAC) has been raising money since early this summer and will continue to, according to Embray.

YAC announced last week they were half way to the goal of raising $500,000 for the installation of field turf on the football field.

Mark Hughes Construction has suspended its demolition work for “cautionary” reasons, Embray said, adding the district doesn’t want buildings razed until they have more definitive answers. The district has been assured by Hughes Construction the current work stoppage won’t affect that contract.