Published: September 22, 2009 09:37 pm      

Officials hope for low bid for PVMS project

PRINCETON — School officials in Mercer County should know as early as next week if an additional $1.5 million in bond funding will be needed for the new PikeView Middle School project.

Bids on the new school are due on Thursday, and school officials hope to have an apparent low bidder selected by Friday. School officials voted 3-2 last month to seek the additional $1.5 million in bond funding as a contingency plan in the event that bids for the new school come in over projections.

“We are still hopeful that they want be,” Todd Boggess, of E.T. Boggess Architects, said. “We have been realizing good numbers on bid projects because the way the market is. But when we do the cost estimates we just have to prepare our clients for the worst case scenario. I am still optimistic that they won’t be needed.”

Boggess said school officials should know by next week if the Qualified Zone Academy Bond will be needed. Two board members, Lynne White and Gene Bailey, voted against the additional $1.5 million in bond funding. Bailey said it could be unconstitutional without voter approval, and White argued the bond would create an unnecessary burden for taxpayers.

Boggess said site work also is continuing on the PikeView project.

“They are already rolling on the site work,” Boggess said. “We have been hurt a little bit because of the weather. They have lost a little bit because of the rain.”

Boggess said the actual school construction should begin in October. He said the site work should be finished by November.

The new PikeView Middle will be about 77,000 square feet in length with a full-size gymnasium and a three-story classroom ring for grades 6 through 8.

“This is going to be a fabulous school for the future students,” Boggess said. “The daylighting effects we are going to have in the classrooms are just going to be tremendous. We are designing these as sustainable schools that can have a positive impact for the future.”

The new middle school, slated to be built near PikeView High School in Gardner off Interstate 77, will take in sixth- through eighth-grade students from Athens, Lashmeet/Matoaka, Spanishburg and Oakvale schools. When PikeView Middle School opens, all four of the feeder schools will be reconfigured into K-5 elementary schools.

The new school is expected to house approximately 515 students when it is opened. The target opening date for the school is August 2011.

— Contact Charles Owens at cowens@bdtonline.com