Friday, September 25, 2009
By Harold Gwin
The last of the new schools in the rebuilding program is slated to open next fall.
YOUNGSTOWN — Furniture, fixtures and equipment for the new Woodrow Wilson Middle School under construction will cost nearly $300,000.
The city school board has awarded a contract to furnish those items to Tom Sexton & Associates of Walton, Ky., at a cost of $284,630.
That amount is within the projected budget for furnishings for the school, said Tony DeNiro, assistant superintendent for school business affairs.
Wilson is the final project in a 13-school, $190 million rebuilding program started by the district six years ago. It is located on Gibson Street on the site of the former Woodrow Wilson High School and carries a $10 million price tag. It is scheduled to open in fall 2010.
The state is picking up 80 percent of the program cost, which includes the demolition of a number of old school buildings.
A dozen have been torn down so far, and the school board awarded a contract this week to tear down another — the former Hillman School on West Myrtle Avenue on the South Side.
The school board already had the asbestos removed from the building at a cost of $75,300, awarding that contract to Environmental Protection Systems of Girard.
The demolition contract was awarded to Wolford’s Inc. of McDonald, at a cost of $95,000, which is well below the budget estimate, DeNiro said.
Engineering estimates had put the razing at an estimated $190,000, he said.
The district may be able to use that savings to add another old school to the demolition list, said Anthony Catale, school board president.
The district is seeking bids for the demolition of the John White School on Lyden Avenue on the East Side, and DeNiro said the district would like the Adams School on Cooper Street and the Princeton School on Hillman Street, both on the South Side, to follow that.
The board already has awarded asbestos-removal and demolition contracts on the old West Elementary School on North Hazelwood Avenue.
DeNiro said the asbestos work is being done now by Environmental Assurance Co. of Avon, Ind., at a cost of $652,800.
That job came in well below the engineering estimate of $2.2 million and should also provide funds to raze additional buildings, school officials have said.
Once the asbestos is cleared, Moderalli Excavating Inc. of Poland will raze the building at a cost of $177,300.
DeNiro said the school facilities committee will be meeting soon to look at the numbers to determine if Adams and Princeton can be added to the list.
Buildings razed so far were Martin Luther King, Jackson, Cleveland, Bennett, Rayen, East, Wilson, Taft, Harding, Bunn, Volney Rogers and North.
gwin@vindy.com