The Pleasant Valley School Board awarded the contracts for the high school renovation project during a special meeting Monday night. The project came in about $15 million under budget.

“It was very exciting to see the bids come in; how they came in under $15 million under what we had projected,” said Superintendent James Konrad. “I think that is an incredible task for anybody that’s going into large renovation projects.”

During a presentation about the bids and financing, Tammy Smale, the district’s business manager, said the district projected the renovation project could cost about $103 million. The amount for all five primary contracts totaled $87,650,279. Those primary contracts are for general construction, mechanical construction, plumbing construction, electrical and environmental abatement.

The district had budgeted $88,655,000 for its projected construction costs and $14,480,722 million in soft costs for designing, surveying, permits, etc. The actual bid amount for construction costs came in at $72,571,194 and soft costs are anticipated to be $15,079,085.

The school district received two bids for general construction: Lobar Construction Services and Penn Builders. Lobar’s base bid was $32,931,000, and Penn’s was an even $35 million. With the proposed alternatives added, Penn was still $803,900 above the lowest bid. Lobar was awarded the contract at $38,261,500.

Some of the alternatives added to the contract include:

• Team rooms on the north side of the existing gymnasium;

• Replacing the replacing the gymnasium wood floor, bleachers and divider curtains;

• Mill and overlay paving which includes re-striping at the student parking lot (B) and the faculty parking lot (A1), as well as parking lot (A2) and (A3), and the driveways;

• And some other maintenance issues such as repointing some of the brick, rekeying some doors, and flooring in the JCM building.

The contract for mechanical construction went to Myco Mechanical Inc. in Telford for $13,894,000. JBM Mechanical Inc. and Scranton Sheet Metal also put in bids.

Myco Mechanical was also awarded the contract for plumbing construction at $5,551,000. Other bids were submitted by JBM, LTS Plumbing and Heating Inc. and O & M Multi-Trade Inc.

Electrical construction went to Wind Gap Electric Inc. in Wind Gap. The amount of the contract was $14,288,370. Boro Construction also placed a bid for the contract.

And the environmental abatement contract went to Sargent Enterprises in Jim Thorpe for $576,324. Plymouth Environmental Co. Inc. and EHC Associated also submitted bids.

School board director Michael Galler was absent, but all of the remaining directors voted in favor of the contracts.

Smale also went over the financing for the project. She said the district has received a $1 million Public School Facility Improvement Grant and a $264,987 Environmental Repairs grant.

The district has also set aside $12,050,000 in the Capital Reserve allocation, and $377,403 in Bond 2018 allocation. It also has $14,774,438 in the 2023 bond principal with $803,281 in earned interest from investing the money from that bond; and the 2024 bond principal of $14,797,434 with $461,165 of interest earned from that bond.

Smale explained that the district borrowed money in a long-term bond at a lower interest rate, then reinvested the money in short-term investments at a higher interest rate. That is how the school district earned money from the bonds.

Smale said the district plans to get another bond in 2025 of $40,000,000 and invest it as well. The remaining $3,121,571 needed for the project will either come from a bond in 2026 or savings from the Capital Reserve.

“I just want to thank everyone who has contributed to getting this project off the ground. It’s truly been a long process. It’s been about two years and obviously a lot of hard work and effort was put into this exciting project,” said and thanked several people by name,” Konrad said and thanked several people by name.

“I’m thrilled about the great work that Tammy has done and is continuing to do with this project, not only through her transparency but also through her continued planning which has really brought us forward and will continue to, so thank you, Mrs. Smale especially.”

The project is expected to take at least two and half years to complete.