Marshall County School District is preparing to launch renovation and repair projects to the tune of an estimated $2.33 million, in the coming months.
The board of education voted on Thursday to approve initial project estimates and engineering contracts to renovate the former Pepsi Mid-America building to house the district’s new bus garage, demolish the now vacant Benton Middle School, repair the tennis court and track at Marshall County High School and repair the track at North Marshall Middle School. The district also approved emergency plans to replace HVAC unit that failed May 9 at the Marshall County High School Tech Center.
Project estimates for the new district bus garage took the lion’s share of cost estimates, coming in at about $1.1 million total. Among expenses associated with the project were $955,275 allotted for construction and $62,323 toward architecture and engineering costs. The board voted to enter into an agreement with Urban Fabric Architects of Murray to design, plan and oversee construction on the project. District Facilities Director Jeff Stokes said the project – in addition to offices – includes constructing a five-bay work space and power hookups for buses.
“We have a four-bay system right now that basically sits across, this is going to be a five-bay system,” Stokes said. “It’s going to be basically identical, except we’re going to be 20-foot wider so we can have some working space for our mechanics. … It’s going to be right behind the little office there. In addition, I think it’s going to be 50 foot off that building, but we’d like to be able to keep the power hookups, so when we pull the buses up at night, we can plug those up and make sure they’re ready to go in the winter time when we take off for the routes.”
The board voted also tapped Urban Fabric to demolish Benton Middle School and a home owned by the district on Hwy. 61 at estimated costs of $153,000 and $9,000, respectively.
Marcum Engineering of Paducah will handle project oversight for replacing the 30-ton HVAC unit – which includes the cooling tower, compressor and coils – at the MCHS Tech Center. Total project costs were $85,000; $10,300 of that cost went to engineering fees. The new unit should be complete and operational by Aug. 1, Stokes said.
Repair work on the MCHS track, NMMS track and tennis court renovations were expected to cost about $991,612. Some $870,090 of that project were expected construction costs; architecture and engineering expenses were anticipated at about $63,516. The district tapped CMS Architects of Paducah to design, plan and oversee renovations.
“The Marshall County track basically has to be reworked,” Stokes said. “It has to have a concrete ring inside, we’ve got to take the rubber off. North Marshall track, basically you’ve got to rip the asphalt out and start over; it’s got some drainage issues, which is probably going to cost more than actually what the high school track is going to be just because it’s got drainage issues we have to deal with. Our tennis courts, we have grass growing up through them. We’ve tried to take care of it. It’s just not a very good base that we have down for our tennis courts, so that’s going to have to have some major renovations to those courts to make them work.”
Project specs will now move on to the Kentucky Department of Education for review and approval prior to construction start.
In other business, the board:
- Approved a 2-percent pay increase for teachers, instructional assistants, cooks, managers and custodial staff;
- approved a 4-percent pay increase for certified substitute teachers;
- approved the purchase of a $27,689 zero-turn mower with attachments for grounds maintenance;
- approved the purchase of a $137,013 camera system that will outfit each of the district’s 55 buses with five cameras apiece;
- awarded a $249,735 contract to Peel and Holland of Benton for properties’ insurance; and
- approved the sale of three surplus buses at auction.