$2M UCS Field House Under Reevaluation

Blairsville, Ga – New field house being reassessed after bids come in $1M over the initial budget.

Board of Education elected to reevaluate the scope of the field house project after bids for came back around $2M.

“I had anticipated a million. This is way more than I anticipated,” stated Chair Cynthia Odom.

“When we started out the architects the number was a lot lower, but it seems like it has grown and grown with its costs and we actually value engineered practically everything,” explained Assistant Superintendent David Murphy.

Superintendent John Hill offered to go back and reevaluate the specifications, including the architectural drawings and RFP to find a reasonable solution.

Odom suggested looking at the current fieldhouse and trying to modify it before proceeding with this project.

“We’re a pay as we go,” said Odom, “It’s going to delay other items.”

Board Member Keith Potts added another approach to the field house project, “Maybe the footprint of it can be what you’re looking at, but downsize the building so you can expand maybe in five years to get that number down.”

These bids for the project came in last week, and due to architecture fees, the school system’s already paid over $50,000 into it. The bidding was very tight among the lowest three within $50,000.

“It’s a terrible time to build,” stated Hill.

“It’s hard to justify the costs of double, $2M on a non-academic building, used by a finite number of students,” said Board Member Janna Akins.

“We need to provide a facility, but we can reevaluate exactly what that is,” stated Hill.

Odom the discussion closed with, “We appreciate all the time, effort, and energy. I know this is not an easy thing to do.”

Safety access doors for all the schools are proceeding and should be installed by the new school year. All teacher IDs have been updated, and the switch should begin soon.

Paving for the primary and elementary pick-up line, two parking lots, as well as primary and elementary bus drop-off/pick-up areas. The paving project will cost the school system $511,775.88.

Privacy fencing for the primary school also received approval to move forward with a bid of $76,867.20. It will include a six-foot chain link fence with privacy slating around the pick-up lane. This fence will allow traffic to start earlier in the day and hopefully speed up the process.

“Those were the areas we identified with the most potholes and issues for parents, but also they drop off the most children there. It will really benefit a lot of our students,” said Hill.

“We never let them back before 2:30 because we still have children on the playground,” explained Murphy, “The privacy slating will allow us to have them out.”

Union County Primary School Principal Millie Owenby agreed that the fencing should improve the pick-up process in the next school year.