School board awards $751K contract to replace visitors side bleachers

Feedback from a resident one year ago has led to a more than $750,000 project approved and ready to go for the Newton Community School District.

In a 6-0 vote, the Newton school board this past Monday night awarded the visitors side bleacher replacement project to an Iowa contractor. School board member Cody Muhs was absent at the meeting and could not vote. The project was kickstarted in part because a community member spoke out at a meeting.

Tom Hollander, the Newton resident who urged the school board to add handrails to the visitors side bleachers in the first place, spoke about the project during open forum. He noted it had been exactly one year since he spoke out about the bleachers. To him, the bleachers are going to accomplish what needs to be done.

“It’s amazing after I was here a year ago and an article that was in the Newton Daily News the number of people that knew me in the community to talk specifically about the item of handrails and ADA accessibility,” Hollander said. “Their comment was: We needed this for 10 years, 15 years.”

The project is moving forward now. Hollander said what many people do not realize is that the bleacher replacement project only covers the east side — the visitors side — and not the bleachers in the main home section. He encouraged the school board to eventually incorporate the west side bleachers, too.

“It’s an addition to the community that I think everyone will be proud of,” Hollander said. “The Newton football team this past Friday night had the opportunity to play at North Polk in a brand new facility with bleachers that accommodated the home team spectators as well as the visitors.”

The next game the Cardinals will be playing at Bondurant-Farrar’s home turf. It is a relatively new stadium, and it features similar accessibility to the North Polk field. Hollander said the school board should strive to have the Newton Community School District’s athletic facilities be ADA accessible.

“I look forward to your positive vote to move this forward,” Hollander said.

Rachelle Hines of FRK Architects + Engineers told school board members that six bids were received last week, all of which were either under budget or right around budget. The lowest bid came from Caliber Concrete with a $634,000 base bid and an alternate bid of $117,550 for a new press box.

“The original budget was at $725,000, so it did come in under budget,” Hines said, noting that accepting the alternate bid brings the total to $751,550.

Tim Bloom, director of business services, said there are additional “soft costs” that will put the project beyond the $800,000 threshold. The school board had already decided to use Secure an Advanced Vision for Education (SAVE) funds for the project, which are usually earmarked for infrastructure improvements.

However, Bloom said the district should be able to use Physical Plant and Equipment Levy (PPEL) funds to pay the remainder without coming back to the board and asking for more SAVE funds. PPEL funds are also used for infrastructure improvements. Bloom suggested a new press box would be ideal.

School board members questioned why the press box needed to be addressed now rather than later. Hines said the exiting press box was added on or redone about 10 years ago. It sits behind the current bleacher set. With the new bleachers, it will require some maneuvering.

“The other thing with the current press box is it doesn’t have access from both sides,” Hines said. “This alternate would provide you access to that press box from both sides, which would provide some additional ease of use for that space. The press box we would probably have to address eventually anyways.”