Project set for summer 2019
By Scott Bellile
The New London School Board approved the first facilities project that will be completed using dollars from the recently approved 10-year referendum.
The board on Monday, Dec. 10 accepted a $626,850 bid from Kiel-based Walsdorf Roofing Company to complete a roofing replacement project next summer at Lincoln Elementary School.
“We have worked with Walsdorf several times in the past and it’s continued to be a valued partner,” Business Services Director Joe Marquardt said.
The project will involve replacing 34,400 square feet of roofing at Lincoln. All sections of the roof will carry a 30-year warranty.
The higher bids, submitted by four other contractors, ranged from $681,848 to $788,800.
The roof is original to the 1993 construction of Lincoln Elementary School, school board President Terry Wegner said.
School board Vice President Virginia Schlais asked Marquardt if any area inside the school has been damaged as a result of Lincoln’s aging roof.
“There is by the library,” Marquardt said. “There’s some walls that the water has gotten in that has affected more of an office area that is there. That’s kind of been our concern the last two years.”
Since summer 2015, roof replacements have been performed at Parkview Elementary School, Readfield Elementary School and New London Intermediate/Middle School.
Roofs at Sugar Bush Elementary School and New London High School are also expected to be replaced over the next decade using dollars from the 10-year, $1.3 million-per-year referendum.
The School District of New London is also in the process of hiring an architecture firm to provide design services to the district as it plans referendum projects.
According to Maruqardt, the chosen firm will help in coordinating the facilities projects, creating bid documents and offering guidance in completing projects as cost-effectively as possible.
The school district’s facilities, capital projects and energy efficiency committee on Dec. 5 interviewed four firms that submitted requests for proposal for the job.
The committee planned to interview three of those firms again on Thursday, Dec. 13. The committee will recommend hiring one of the firms at a January school board meeting.