By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The Hays USD 489 school board approved a $110,315 contract with Integrated Solutions for the removal of asbestos floor tile, adhesive and window glazing from Felten Elementary at its meeting Monday night.
The funds will come from the capital outlay budget. The bid came in under the $175,000 estimate.
The former high school has been renovated into a new middle school. Staff will begin moving into the renovated space on Thursday.
The former middle school will be renovated into a four-section elementary school, scheduled to open in August.
Wilson Elementary School is set to close as an elementary school at the end of the school year, with administrative offices eventually relocating to that building.
The district plans to close the Rockwell Administration Center.
The asbestos in the former middle school poses no threat at this time, because it is not airborne, Superintendent Ron Wilson said.
However, when the tile is replaced with new flooring during the renovation, the asbestos will need to be abated.
Board member Allen Park moved to table the motion to the next meeting.
Park said he wanted more time to consider the bid.
Superintendent Ron Wilson said the district needed to move forward with the bid to keep to its construction timeline. He said delaying the bid award would "severely disrupt our schedule." He also said the item had been in the capital outlay budget for some time.
The flooring work needs to be completed before other construction can begin, he said, and further delays could push the completion date past the start of the school year.
Park said he wanted to walk through the building to determine if some of the tile replacement could be delayed.
He also complained that the bid was not being awarded to a Kansas company.
Chris Hipp, assistant superintendent of business services, said the district received three bids for the work after a public bidding process.
Jayme Goetz, whose husband works in construction, said there is an extreme labor shortage right now, and some Kansas companies are not bidding on projects because they don't have the workers.
Park argued that the asbestos did not have to be removed by a professional abatement company.
Hipp said any outside company that the district would hire to work on the tile would be subject to Occupational Safety and Health Administration guidelines. Those guidelines require professional asbestos abatement.
Goetz said she did not think any local company would be willing to assume the liability for removing the asbestos.
Board member Derek Yarmer said he wanted bids to be brought to the board for a first reading before a vote.
"Everything has been something that we've had to move on," Yarmer said. ... "If everything is an emergency, then nothing is an emergency."
Wilson said now is the best time to replace the flooring and remove the asbestos because the building will be empty for six months.
Board member Ruth Ruder agreed that any future flooring work could disrupt students and teachers. She added that the cost of the work will only increase in the future.
The motion to table the bid approval failed on a vote of 4-2.
The motion to replace the flooring and abate the asbestos passed on a vote of 4-2, with Park and Yarmer voting against.
Park asked Wilson to bring a report to the board on any remaining asbestos in district schools.
Wilson said the district has been working for years to remove asbestos from its buildings and has made even more progress during the bond projects. He said very little asbestos remains. However, he said he would bring an asbestos report back to the board.