Members of the Southwick girls track team warm up on the gravel-stone track that is presently in use at the school. The Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School Committee approved hiring J and L Construction to construct and complete the new track project. The new track will feature a state-of-the-art all-weather surface material. (File photo by Frederick Gore)
SOUTHWICK – The Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School Committee approved hiring J & L Construction Company of Springfield to construct and complete the track project at the Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional High School (STGRHS) Tuesday night.
J & L was the lowest of four qualifying bids received.
Kurt Lavaway of Strategic Building Solutions, project manager for the campus-wide renovation project, said J & L bid $713,500.
The next lowest bid was Gagliarducci Construction, Inc. of Springfield at $748,000.
“We’re going to qualify the two lowest bidders,” Lavaway said.
The committee voted to contract with Gagliarducci should J & L not complete its contract.
Superintendent Dr. John Barry said the lowest bid was roughly $25,000 over the projected budget.
Construction of the track is set to take place this summer. A former Southwick student who remains anonymous offered to donate $400,000 to build a new track last fall and has increased that donation to accommodate higher costs than expected.
“The donor has agreed to split the overage with the district,” Barry said.
Four alternatives were included in the request but none were included in the lowest bids.
The alternatives were a fence, storage shed, filling in triangles with track material, and a pole vault area.
“It looks like we can’t afford the alternatives,” said Barry. “The fence will come out of the capital budget and for the storage shed, we’d like to have the woodworking class work on that.”
Several months ago the committee voted to use unexpended funds toward the project and Barry stressed that there would be no cost to taxpayers for the project, which falls under the category of a public works project.
“We have been borrowing for capital improvements for a long time,” he said at the time of the transfer. “There are four years where we have unexpended balances. We’re paying the debt service and it has to be expended and can’t be used to pay down the debt.”
The current track has greatly deteriorated. Barry said some other schools have requested to move meets scheduled at STGRHS to their own track.
STGRHS Senior Gabrielle Strong, captain of the cross-country team, said the track is challenging.
“It’s really hard to dig into the track because of the gravel,” said Strong. “Every step you take, you’re sliding backwards.”
Strong said puddles are a major obstacle on the current track.
