Committee must pare $5M from project to offset rising costs during litigation.
SOUTH YARMOUTH — The Dennis-Yarmouth School Building Committee began the tough job of paring $5 million from plans for the new regional middle school Thursday, working from a list of possible cuts put together by project architects and management team members.
Although no final decisions were made, the list of possible cuts ranged from a $30,000 change from metal paneling to drywall for the ceiling in the school vestibule to a $2.2 million synthetic turf sports field.
The plan to build a $117 million school for Dennis and Yarmouth students had been stalled by litigation for about a year.
Plans call for the school to house grades 4-7 on a district-owned site on Station Avenue in South Yarmouth, replacing the aging Mattacheese Middle School in West Yarmouth and Nathaniel H. Wixon School in South Dennis.
Steadily rising construction costs while two court challenges to the project played out have meant that $5 million must now be slashed from the bottom line before final plans can be drawn.
Thursday marked a first run-through of project costs for the building committee, which had not met in more than a year. Reductions were not formally voted on, but project managers from PMA Consultants will use the list to show officials at the Massachusetts School Building Authority that it is possible to get the project back in the black.
Reductions could not affect the educational plan the construction project was developed to meet. They also were made to areas where costs are not reimbursible via the $44 million in state funding.
The proposed reductions include a change in curb materials from granite to precast concrete; elimination of a $446,500 irrigation system at all athletics fields with the intention of seeking alternative ways to pay for the system; a change in athletic field material from sod to seed to recoup about $200,000; elimination of a planned soccer field at the Station Avenue front; 50% reduction in fitness course equipment; reduction of 50% in plantings; and reduction in lockers to 50% of the enrollment to save $95,000.
Chad Crittendon, of PMA Consultants, ran through the list for the building committee. Sitting on that panel are two selectmen from each town, town administrators, Dennis-Yarmouth teachers and school administrators, schools Superintendent Carol Woodbury and Assistant Superintendent Kenneth Jenks, and some members at large.
Schematic designs for the new school are finished, but final designs must be drawn by May 5. Before that can be done, architects at Perkins Eastman have to know what is being eliminated. The building committee is expected to formally vote on its recommendations Feb. 13.
Construction bid packages will go out early next year, with a February 2021 deadline for bid submissions, if the project stays on track.
Construction should start shortly after that. The school will likely be ready to move into by late 2022.
Follow Christine Legere on Twitter: @ChrisLegereCCT.
