Ethan Hoagland
The Sweet Home School board has picked Gerding Builders of Corvallis as the contractor that will oversee seismic improvements to Oak Heights Elementary School. The board made the unanimous decision during a special meeting held Monday, October 16. The district is now negotiating with Gerding Builders to hammer out a contract.
The process involved companies submitting proposals to the school board, which then compiled a list and scored each company based on criteria like experience and planning. Gerding Builders won out not only because they scored high on the criteria. The school board also weighed the company’s involvement in seismic renovation projects at Sweet Home’s three other elementary schools, as well as the auditorium seismic project at the high school and the junior high renovation.
In the district’s request for proposals, officials listed possible improvements like replacing the roof, strengthening the walls and bracing the ceiling, lights and mechanical systems. Seismic improvements help bolster a building’s earthquake resilience.
Currently, the budget for the seismic upgrades is capped at $3,122,250. After contract negotiations finish, a final design for the project is expected in April of next year. If that timeline goes as planned, construction is slated to start next June. Money for the project comes in part from a $2.5 million seismic retrofit grant awarded to the district by Business Oregon.
In a memorandum to the school board, district maintenance supervisor Josh Darwood and business manager Kevin Strong recommended the board approve Gerding Builders based in part on their experience working with local subcontractors and past experience with the district. In that memorandum, Gerding Builders’ design fee was placed at $28,116.
Strong and Darwood added that ZCS Engineering, a firm based out of Klamath Falls and GLAS Architects, LLC out of Eugene are also working on the project. If GLAS Architects sounds familiar, it’s because they worked on Sweet Home Junior High School’s upgrades.