T-R PHOTO BY LANA BRADSTREAM — Mitch Broekemeier and Michael Martin, both with Boyd Jones, tell the Marshalltown Community School District Board of Education about recommended bids for the Miller Middle School project. The board approved the recommendations at the regular Monday meeting.

Twenty-five companies were awarded bids for the $106 million Miller Middle School renovation project during the regular Monday Marshalltown Community School District Board of Education meeting.

Boyd Jones representatives Mitch Broekemeier and Michael Martin broke the bids down for the school board members.

“Ultimately guys, we’re here for the culmination of a lot of effort over the last multiple years of just putting all this together,” Broekemeier said. “Tonight is celebrating a big milestone for this project. This is coming after we’ve had our main bid opening for the rest of Miller Middle School where we had 25 different packages that were up for bid.”

He told the board they anticipated 80 bids but got 66 bids for the 25 packages, which was a great turnout.Two packages will have to be rebid.

“If everything continues to pan out with the other two bid packages, which we’re anticipating that it will, we’re going to be within one percent of where we were at when we had the conversation of budgets,” Broekemeier said. “That’s onevpercent to the good side. So, we’re going to be under budget with the opportunity to potentially capture some of these alternates.”

Some alternates include portable orchestra shells or walls, a scenery projection system, irrigation and west parking expansion. Broekemeier said the alternates are out for bid and will be finalized at an April board meeting.

“We’re able to keep all of these alternates open for a period of 60 days,” he said. “That allows us to get through to that April board meeting. As soon as we have the rest of those bids in, we will be able to determine which alternates we could potentially select.”

One alternate Broekemeier said they are recommending is the west parking lot expansion, which would add another two rows of parking.

Martin said Boyd Jones devotes 60 to 90 minutes to each contractor to go through bid results, and make sure the scope is covered, the necessary certificates to perform the work.

“At this time, these are the contractors that were the low responsible bidder that we’re recommending to be approved at this meeting,” he said.

Superintendent Theron Schutte asked if two packages out for re-rebid — subgrade waterproofing and theater equipment — were slated to take place early in the project. Martin told him the waterproofing is supposed to take place this summer. Broekemeier said theater equipment would be included in the later part of Phase 1.

Board member Leah Stanley asked why the subgrade waterproofing did not get any bidders. Broekemeier said it is a unique package.

“Hindsight being what it was, that could have been included with a general trades package,” he told her. “We had two groups who said they were going to bid. I’m not sure what the reasoning was for those two not bidding. However, those two and a couple others are now showing interest, as well as we are talking to our general trades group about picking that up.”

Regarding the theater equipment package, the bidders had issues getting their bids in. For example, one was unable to get to FedEx in time. However, Broekemeier said three bidders do intend to submit their bids again.

Board President Sean Heitmann asked them if they felt good from a cost standpoint. Broekemeier said they have enough contingency built in to help.

“Having those safeguards in place now makes all of us on our side feel much more comfortable going into a project like this,” he said. “Especially knowing we had enough interest to get this under budget.

Stanley also asked if local companies submitted, and if those bids were accepted. Martin told her three to four Marshalltown companies submitted bids.

“Concrete, masonry and earthwork, right off the bat, are local contractors to the metro,” he said.

Broekemeier expanded on Martin’s answer, adding they contacted multiple companies, but were told the project was just too big.

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Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.