by Carrie Moritz, Gazette
The Garretson School Board met on Tuesday, March 28 to canvass the opt out election results, but much of the hour-long meeting was dedicated to the athletic complex and school buses.
The first change order had come in from Mammoth Construction, the company contracted by the Garretson School for the athletic complex renovations. Representatives from Mammoth, the head engineer from Infrastructure Design Group, and superintendent Guy Johnson had met to go over the details of the project, known as a "value engineering session," according to Johnson.
"Mammoth had some ideas for ways we could reduce the cost of the project overall," Superintendent Johnson said.
One of those was a change in stabilization materials beneath the turf. When bids had gone out, engineered fill had been the lower-cost option, but currently tilled substrate with concrete stabilization is lower in price. This option was preferred by both the engineer and Mammoth Construction, and would save the school $133,832. The tilled substrate is not only more solid, but is less likely to have settling issues.
Other ideas to reduce construction costs included a herringbone-style drainage system, and reducing the goal posts from "pro-level or Division I" 35-foot poles to 20-foot "high school-level".
Johnson said the 20-foot poles are also more favorable to the wind speeds in the complex, which is at the top of a hill. While it's only a $2,000 difference, it, along with the other savings, allowed for replacement of the high-jump and long-jump areas. This had initially been cut from the plans due to cost overages during the bidding process.
The final change, and the one the board spent the most time with, was the request to add the Garretson Blue Dragon logo onto the center field. However, the construction supervisor had mentioned they were hoping to add the plans for stabilization of the parking lot at around $15,000. The logo addition would be $18,150, and while board members liked the idea of how good it would look, they felt it was more a "want" than a "need."
"I would rather fix the parking lot than have a logo," said board member Tana Clark.
Superintendent Johnson surmised there will likely be other future savings opportunities, but agreed that the field would still look sharp even without the logo. Kari Flanagan and Jodi Gloe voiced optimism that a new scoreboard would still be a possibility.
The board then voted to approve the change order without the logo, saving the school nearly $24,000.
After canvassing the vote for the opt out, which passed 344 to 278, the board turned its attention to a report from Johnson regarding the electric school buses. He had recently attended a national conference and heard from a company named Lion Electric which manufactures electric school buses. After contacting the company to request estimates and service costs, he had discovered that while they were similar to Blue Bird in all respects, they were more economically friendly with regards to charger installation and use costs. This would allow the school to obtain up to three buses without having to use the Capital Outlay fund for overages and stay within the cost parameters of the grant that was awarded to the school.
Other positives the of the Lion buses would be a lighter-overall weight to the vehicle, as the body is made from a composite material instead of steel, and the company is only 6-8 months out on manufacturing instead of Blue Bird's greater-than one year estimate.
However, as part of the grant requirements, the school will have to dispose of the same number of diesel buses, leaving only three combustible engine buses in the Garretson School District fleet, two of which are propane-fueled. This was a cause for concern with the school board, which was concerned about electric and insurance cost differences as well.
Superintendent Johnson stated he had spoken with DeSmet School District's transportation supervisor, who is a certified electric engine mechanic. DeSmet had been awarded grant money for electric buses as well, and they were very confident in the electric version. He also pointed out that most schools who have implemented electric into their bus fleets have seen an 80% reduction in overall costs, with 63% of that being a reduction in maintenance cost.
Board President Shannon Nordstrom, who owns Nordstrom Automotive and is known for his nationally-syndicated show with Russ Evans, Under the Hood, stated that while he was skeptical of the electric buses at first, he has now gotten on board with the idea.
"If this works, we'll look really really good," said Nordstrom. "If it doesn't, we'll be the stupidest board ever for buying electric buses. But I'll take that risk, with the more I've learned...cause it's worth it." He stated that in the long run, the school is likely to save over $150,000 per bus in replacement costs in the next six years alone.
The board requested that Johnson obtain the final quotes for electric charger installation, electric use costs, and insurance costs before the April 10 regular meeting, where they will make the final decision whether to pursue purchase of two e-buses or three.
The next meeting of the Garretson School Board will be held on Monday, April 10 at 5:45 p.m. at the school library.
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