Bids Season for Marple Newtown School District

NEWTOWN SQUARE–Bids were the talk of the night at a Marple Newtown school board meeting May 10.

First up was the approval of Sargent Enterprises, Inc., of Jim Thorpe, which was unanimously passed by the board, to conduct the asbestos abatement and related work to the at the off of Media Line Road. The lowest responsible bidder, the cost of the project has been slotted by Sargent Enterprises at $127,242.

"It pretty much came in what we had expected," commented Richard Sokorai, vice president of the board, about the cost of the bid.

According to Sokorai, the but asked for an extension in which the new move out date has been scheduled for May 15 and asbestos to the district offices in the community center will begin June 1. Until now, the district courts have been housed in the community center and will need to relocate due to the community center renovation and addition project.

In regards to the community center renovation and addition project, Mike Dumin, Marple Newtown School District director of operations, said the bids are expected to come in on May 23 but may be pushed back.

"The contractors are asking for more time," said Dumin. "So we might have to have a pre-bid meeting and have a special board meeting."

If the bids come in as scheduled on May 23, Sokorai said the board will then address those bids for the community center renovation and addition project at the board meeting on May 24.

Both the roofs for and were also on the agenda Tuesday night.

The lowest responsible bidder for the partial roof replacement and restoration project at Culbertson was for $389,835 by Garvey Roark, LLC, of West Chester. The lowest bidder for the partial roof replacement and restoration project at Russell was for $1,015,101.70 by Jemar Contracting, LLC, of Huntingdon Valley.

According to Dumin, Culbertson's roof will mainly be coated with a rubber coating which will give the roof approximately five years.

"It's not leaking dramatically," said Dumin. "But in a year or two it might be in need of a replacement stage."

However Russell, which is in dire need of a replacement with a recent incident of having part of its roof fly off, may be addressed first.

"If we come in with a low enough number to complete a rubber roof for Russell, we might be able to do both," said Sokorai.

Realistically, although both motions will be moved to the next board agenda, the board may go ahead with Russell first and "hold off" on Culbertson, according to Sokorai.