Fontaine Bros. to build the new Minnechaug

Date: 8/2/2010

Aug. 2, 2010

By Chris Maza

Reminder Assistant Editor

WILBRAHAM -- The July 27 School Committee meeting was a "momentous" occasion for the Hampden Wilbraham Regional School District, according to School Committee chair Peter Salerno.

The School Committee unanimously voted to award the contract for the new Minnechaug Regional High School to Fontaine Bros., Inc. of Springfield. The School Building Committee (SBC) sent the recommendation to the School Committee terming Fontaine Bros. as the lowest eligible and responsible bidder with a unanimous 17-0 vote.

Fontaine Bros. had put in a bid of $53,618,500 for the project.

"This will go down as a historic and wonderful day in the towns of Wilbraham and Hampden," Salerno read from a prepared statement.

In a presentation to both the SBC and the School Committee, SBC co-chair Brian Garbacki said the total projected cost, including construction of the main school building, district offices and the new pool, was $64,996,284, as of July 27.

That figure is well below the approved budget of $82,271,129 in combined funds from the towns of Wilbraham and Hampden and a grant from the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA).

In the spring, the MSBA approved a grant to the district totaling $47,406,405 to be used toward the construction of the main school building. Those funds cannot be used towards the new district office or the new pool, as they do not qualify under the terms of the grant.

The MSBA is projected to be responsible for $37,022,742, or 61.73 percent of the cost of the main school building, leaving the district to pay the remaining $22, 952,541.

In addition to those expenses, the district will be on the hook for the projected $5,021,000 in construction costs for the pool and district offices. The total cost to the towns, including $3 million in contingency funds,is $30,973,000, resulting in a projected surplus of $3,891,724. The towns voted on Oct. 20 to approve spending $34,864,724 on the project.

"This is not a bag of money we can just go hand back to the towns," Project Manager Ray Kinghorn cautioned. "We don't know exactly what the net savings are going to be. We won't know until we are done with the project and have been audited by the MSBA."

According to Kinghorn, the cost of the project is approximately $200 per square foot, a figure that is so low, "it's almost unheard of." He added that the low bids are a reflection of the effect the tough economic times have had on contractors.

"We weren't sure how low, but we knew they would be low," Kinghorn said. "We have seen anywhere from 12 to 14 percent below budgets. This one happens to be a little more than that. Right now the market is so competitive because there's no work. Everybody was really trying to get this job."

Fontaine Bros. has a strong track record of work on academic buildings in Massachusetts. The company has done work on buildings within the district in the past, according to Superintendent M. Martin O'Shea, as well as the model school in Ashland, which the new Minnechaug will be modeled after.

Fontaine Bros.. have also worked on the new Belchertown High School and Chicopee Comprehensive High School.

"Fontaine is well-known to our project architect, well-known to our project manager and well-known to members of the Building Committee," O'Shea said. "The more I learn about the industry, the more I learn that, like a lot of industries, it's built on relationships and I think that's what Fontaine will offer. On top of building a great building for us, [they can] have solid relationships with key people in the community."

O'Shea added that in the prequalification process, which measured the potential bidders' management experience, history on public projects, credit worthiness and bonding capacity, Fontaine Bros. scored a 92 out of a possible 100 points.

With the approval, a notice to proceed and letter of intent of contract will be sent to Fontaine Bros., followed by meetings with the School Building Committee in order to hash out a plan for moving forward with construction. In the meantime, the school building plan, along with the accepted bid, will be reviewed once again by the MSBA for final approval.

Kinghorn said the committee hopes to get the construction underway as soon as possible. An official groundbreaking is scheduled for Sept. 3.