Dist. 300 Awards Contracts for New Du Quoin High School

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The Du Quoin Board of Education Thursday afternoon awarded contracts for construction of the new $13,5 million two-story academic high school building and athletic fields.

Paul Lunsford, district architect shared the results of the bid tabulation and provided analysis of the various bid packages for the board regarding the academic area and athletic field area phases.

The board approved bid awards to the following contractors: Demolition - George's Excavating ($152,000), Site work - Mathis and Sons ($180,400), Asphalt-Short Brothers (183,619.55), Electrical - Burke Electric ($1,062,750), and Fire Protection - Automatic Fire Sprinkler ($138,480.00). The Board also authorized the Lunsford to negotiate and finalize contracts with the following contractors: General - Fager-McGee (not to exceed $7,794,000), Mechanical and Plumbing - Heartland Mechanical (negotiating final combined contract), and Athletic Fields - Byrnes and Jones (not to exceed $1,571,349). The Board awarded the initial work on asbestos abatement (Phase 1) to low bid submitted by A & A Abatement for $30,920.00 which would include abatement of utility tunnels throughout school and floor tile within initial area of south wing to be demolished.

Supt. Dr. Gary Kelly said there is great value in the combination of bids, which came in under $13.5 million, all told.

He said the board was thankful to be able to award bids to local companies like George's Excavating, Mathis & Sons, A & A Abatement, Rednour Steel Erectors and Southern Illinois-based Fager McGee, which is finishing work on the industrial education building.

Athletic field designer Byrnes & Jones designed the new football field at SIU. Both Van Metre Field and the new baseball field will get artificial turf. Van Metre Field will also get an all-new 8-lane all-weather track. The bid includes a practice field and conversion of the current baseball field to a girls' softball field. "We will be able to keep all of the varsity sports fields in one complex," said Dr. Kelly.

"We have found substantial savings in these bids and will continue to find savings," he said.

Demolition of a rear wing on the existing school and asbestos abatement will begin in May. The entire construction project will take about 18 months to complete.

In other business, the board approved a request to allow a middle school student to attend the COPE Alternative School under certain conditions as outlined by the District and COPE Alternative School.