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By GLEN WERLING
The proposed Norwell remodeling project started Monday at $25.6 to $26.7 million and ended the day about $8 million less.
Members of the Northern Wells School Board Monday evening held a
special public work session at the architectural offices of Moake-Park
at 202 East Berry St. in Fort Wayne.
On the recommendation of School Board President Peter Confer, the board
had decided to meet to discuss ways to trim down the proposed project
to remodel/rebuild Norwell High School.
At the outset of the meeting, the, Northern Wells Building &
Grounds Maintenance Supervisor John Kochert informed the board that the
entire 1967 Norwell High School Project cost $2.2 million. That was a
figure that architect Steve Park of the Moake-Park Group found
astonishing. “That figures out to about $16 a square foot for the
construction. I know that construction prices were lower in 1967, but I
don’t think they were that low,” he said.
While the board wasn’t able to trim the new project down that far, it
was successful in perhaps dropping it below the $20 million mark.
Prior to Monday’s meeting, Supt. Dr. Gina Berridge and Board President
Peter Confer had together reviewed ways to make the project more
palatable to taxpayers.
Park replied that he also had reviewed the project to find features
that could be limited to lower the cost. He found a way to eliminate
10,000 square feet, that would lower the cost of classrooms from an
estimated $5.2 million to $3.9 million.
Park also suggested combining the cafeteria and commons spaces to lower
costs, but board member Scott Elzey believed that was impractical.
Park countered that it is common practice now.
“But that makes for a huge unsecured area,” stressed Elzey. “To me
there’s no benefit to what you’ve designed. We’re going to spend $15
million on the high school for security issues and you’ve created
more,” he told Park.
Board member Michelle Brown-Stohler asked Park to find and then provide examples of schools that have the same set-up.
Elzey suggested putting a secure corridor down the side of the
cafeteria. Park said that was one possibility to consider. “The designs
are at a stage where that is very easy to do,” he added.
Elzey and Brown-Stohler also discussed the possibility of keeping the
office on the south side of the building instead of moving it to the
north as proposed by Park and then making the office the entrance way
and providing exclusive visitor parking on the south side—more
exclusive than what exists now.
Also considered was readjusting some of the spaces Park had designed for the cafeteria.
Other places considered for cuts included the costs involved with
demolishing the original building. “What if we didn’t demolish it but
renovate that into something?” said Berridge.
Park replied that the challenge would be with the height. “The ceiling
is fairly low and then we would have to come down two or three feet to
put duct work in. We would probably have 7 foot ceilings if we did
that,” said Park. The alternative would be “smashing the ductwork,” to
make it fit said Park. He added that there would be a lot of money
spent to make the old area usable with unsatisfactory results.
But, again, he added, “We’ll stay open to all suggestions.”
The only thing that absolutely needs to be done to the D-wing
(gymnasium) is roof work and that could cut the cost from an estimated
$1.5 million to about $300,000, said Park.
Berridge suggested limiting work on the auditorium to new lights, new
sound, new carpet and new seats, instead of expanding it to 900 seats
as originally proposed. She also suggested changes to the choir and
band rooms that Park had proposed.
As Berridge was feeding him the information, Park worked through the
figures and decided what Berridge was proposing would cut the cost of
the proposed auditorium renovations from about $3.5 million to about $1
million.
Berridge said the goal was to make the performing arts areas nice and not cheap, but to save money.
She added that enlarging the auditorium to the point where it could
seat 900 (it currently seats 600, about 250 less than the student
population) is nice but perhaps not a realistic goal.
She even considered trimming the entire project down to just replacing
the classrooms and bringing in new water with the possibility of adding
the performing arts section as another project, depending on the
reaction of the public.
Park agreed that would be a possibility but could become complicated and had the potential of being more expensive.
Elzey said, “I think if you take the performing arts out of this
project you’re going to alienate a large portion of the public.”
Indeed, Brown-Stohler and board member Debbie Miller pointed out that
the strongest supporters of the project were the parents of students
involved in band and choir.
After all was said and done, the board had trimmed the proposed project
from an estimated high of $26.7 million to about $18.7 million.
However, Park pointed out that figure does not include addressing the
problems with the water at Norwell. That will add about $1.5 million to
that $18 million total.
The board plans to present the proposed changes at the next public input session Aug. 14.
In a related matter, the board explored long-term renovation plans for both the middle school and Ossian Elementary.
Potential needs that should be addressed at Ossian according to Park
were roof leaks (yes sloped roofs do leak, he pointed out), worn out
carpeting, and the sewer smell that won’t go away. Treasurer Brock
Bowsher advised that maybe these were projects that could be included
in a 10-year capital projects fund plan. Park agreed.
Regarding the sewer smell, Kochert said that the problem probably lies
with the town of Ossian sewage system because the school corporation
has done everything it can to deal with the smell.
Park identified other problems with Ossian—deteriorating windows,
deteriorating casework, storage problems, and obsolescing of mechanical
systems.
At the middle school, according to Park, there are problems with
security, the upstairs is open to the downstairs creating both security
and liability issues, windows are deteriorating, poorly insulated and
are installed in such a way that replacing them will be challenging,
poor lighting, the pool locker rooms are inadequate, and there will be
a need to match the fire protection system with the high school so the
two can become integrated into one system.
“Most of these projects can be accomplished within the (CPF) budget over time,” Park again stressed.
There are also problems with roof leaks, poor sound panels in the band
room, and water quality problems, according to Park. Although, he
added, that when the high school’s water issues are addressed, the
middle school’s water issued should be addressed also.
“Again. most of these projects could be done a little at a time, here and there,” said Park within the annual budget.
Kochert said one of the biggest problems is isolating the mechanical
systems because they’re set up to heat and cool half of the building at
a time. The steel exterior walls also make upstairs classrooms that
share the walls subject to solar heating during the day, said Kochert.
To compensate for that heating, the thermostat has to be adjusted, but
when the system is divided half and half, then interior classrooms are
freezing, he said.
Donaghy again asked Park, “This is something that we can accomplish
with Capital Projects Funds?” Park replied affirmatively and said that
except for any major mechanical issues, the problems at both Ossian and
the middle school should be addressable with CPF funds.
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