BURTON SCHOOL BOARD ACCEPTS BOND BIDS FOR FOOTBALL FIELD, TRACK, HVAC
The Burton School Board on Monday accepted the remaining bids for the Burton ISD bond project.
Trustees unanimously selected the bid of Hellas for $3,125,000 for the football field and track, along with the bid of Round Top HVAC for $2,436,795 for the HVAC system. The board approved the bids after initially tabling action on them during a meeting on November 17th, when it voted on other construction bids.
Superintendent Dr. Edna Kennedy said Athletic Director Jason Hodde’s opinion was extremely important when choosing how to move forward with the pieces for the track and field.
Hodde said his support of Hellas’ bid was based on it having several added benefits for player safety and longevity, like a Cushdrain shockpad to help protect athletes from injuries caused by hard impact and an Ecotherm infill to keep the field cooler. He said Burton would have a “Taj Mahal” when it comes to other schools wanting to play games and hold track meets there, and that the new field would be better for community events and activities.
Trustee Donna Putnam and other board members agreed that going for the best available product is the way to proceed.
Dr. Kennedy said Burton ISD is now working on getting contracts approved with bidders and should be ready to break ground in the “very near future,” although she noted that the district is taking its time through the process to make sure everything is correct.
Burton, you are doing your bond and bid as we taxpayers expect.
Brenham ISD should send observers.
I don’t think that the taxpayers in the Brenham School district want to pay for “[…] a “Taj Mahal””.
The strange thing that with all the technology, expertise, highly paid analysts and others, my bet would be that no construction company or engineer would guarantee that Brenham’s projected Junior High School would still be in existence and still be in use 95 years after being constructed. The Geiseke & Harris-designed former High School on Market Street was completed in 1928 and the first graduating class left there in 1929. If the district would listen to the Washington County Historical Commission’s recommendations for window conservation (in a letter to the superintendent over a year ago), the building could be preserved and there would be no need to make external (and internal structural) changes. It seems as though the popular belief is that “new is always better”, but strangely enough, people will (in the same breath) tell you “they just don’t make things like they used to”.
I doubt that bidding out projects described as a “Taj Mahal” before there’s an approved bond/budget for them already in place would appeal to the local electorate. The cart follows the horse, not the other way around.