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Officials Eye Ways to Offset Cost of School Construction Projects

Posted on: Monday, 26 June 2006, 12:00 CDT

By Hillary Chabot, The Sun, Lowell, Mass.

Jun. 26--LOWELL -- Hoping to avoid another costly school project like the $24.6 million Stoklosa School, officials are searching for ways to the cut the cost of two upcoming school construction projects.

School officials estimated last September the two projects would cost $32.8 million to overhaul the old Butler School at Gorham and Carter streets and build a new Morey School at of Pine and Morey streets.

But for every six months that pass, the cost increases $800,000 per project, and the schools will only be reimbursed for $23 million from the state no matter what the cost.

Superintendent of Schools Karla Brooks Baehr said the School Building Committee plans on using thousands of additional square footage in the Butler School basement, and has also created a more compact design for the Morey School to save money.

"They're hoping the final cost will remain level after we make these cuts, even though inflation has raised the construction prices," Baehr said.

The project should go out to bid this fall in the hopes that a contractor could begin work next February, Baehr said. The committee hopes to announce the project manager at the end of next week, Baehr said.

Baehr said she wants to be sure all changes made to the renovations and construction are made before the project goes out to bid to avoid another Stoklosa fiasco.

Cost overruns plagued the $24.6 million Stoklosa Middle School located in the Acre neighborhood.

Three classrooms were deleted from the projects' blueprints, which ended up costing the city about $300,000.

"Once the bids are out and we agree upon a design with the contractors, it's much more expensive to make changes. We want to get all of them out of the way now," Baehr said.

Hillary Chabot's e-mail address is hchabot@lowellsun.com

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Sun, Lowell, Mass.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Sun (Lowell, Massachusetts)

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