Board Approves Change Order After Harvest Parking Lot Project Requires More Work

The Board of Education voted to approve a change order for bond work being done at Harvest Elementary.

In December, the board approved spending $555,555 for work on the parking lot and playground at Harvest Elementary. The price was increased by $218,911 to T&M Asphalt at Tuesday's meeting.

Rex Clary, Director of Operations, told the board the need for the change order was two-folld. For one, the scope of the work at Harvest grew when square footage was added to the parking lot. On top of that, it was determined that the planned work wasn't going to be satisfactory.

"After they milled it, they realized they could not save the asphalt.  The asphalt they were going to put on top was going to last, at most, 3-5 years, which would have been a six-figure waste of money," Clary said.

The new work should make the lot last another 12-15 years.

Clary said the project is almost 98 percent done and it will be nearly 99 percent done Sept. 7.

"This Friday will be a hard work day and this Saturday will be hard work day,"  Clary said.

Clary said the playground construction will be done - though it probably won't have grass just yes.

The work is being done with the old Safe, Warm and Dry bond money and the most recent bond funds. The remaining $170,000 in contingency from the Safe, Warm and Dry bond will be used, leaving $48,000 to be funded.

Clary said it was an abnormal situation, but all the asphalt work was bid out together to save money. When the asphalt failed, the district had to pivot and take on costs.

The new alignment of the parking lots, pick-up area and bus loop seems to be working well despite some challenges. Clary said the new bollards installed help protect students. In addition, he said, the traffic flow looks good.

"We didn't have the back up. We've got more queuing now on campus so we can stack more cars without backing on to the roundabout," Clarly said. "The buses now are separate from the parents. Before we'd have parents and students cutting between buses, which is very unsafe. So now the bus is coming to the front loops and the parents have their own drop-off areas. I think it's a win-win."

Clary said there are adjustments that people will need to make.

"But the kids are safer. The staff has more parking closer to the building and we've approved the ADA accessibility from the high school to Harvest," he said.

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