High school bids looking good

The Oak Harbor School Board is scheduled to award a contract Monday evening for the bulk of the renovation of Oak Harbor High School.

School officials opened the bids late Thursday afternoon and are encouraged by the numbers they saw.

Joe Hunt, spokesperson for the school district, said four companies bid on the renovation project. One of the companies appeared to have submitted a bid below budget and three of the four bids were bunched together. Hunt wouldn’t say how much the bid amounts were.

Construction managers are busy checking the references of the contractors and examining the bids to make sure the information submitted is accurate. More complete information will become available during Monday’s board meeting.

The school district budgeted $44 million for the project which includes renovation of A Wing and B Wing along with construction of a new cafeteria and auditorium building.

The relatively-low bids are in sharp contrast to the bids for Wildcat Memorial Stadium. In 2006, those bids came in nearly $700,000 more than originally budgeted.

Hunt attributed the change in bids to the lagging economy and the excellent job construction managers Gary Goltz and Mitch Romero did promoting the project.

Once the references and bids are examined, the school board will decide whether to accept a bid during its Monday evening meeting, which begins at 6:30 p.m. at the administration building at 350 S. Oak Harbor St.

Contact Whidbey News Times Staff reporter Nathan Whalen at nwhalen@whidbeynewsgroup.com or 360-675-6611 ext. 5058.

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