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State
Expansions of academic buildings at the state schools for the deaf and blind have been on hold since July 2010, when bids came in 41 percent higher than estimates, but revised plans were put out for bid last week.
The Ohio School Facilities Commission won’t know until early November, when the bids are due back, whether they are within the required 10 percent of the projected cost, about $22.7 million. The expansions now will be 15 percent smaller than in the 2010 design, and a union-only “project labor agreement” has been revoked .
If all goes as planned, the additions would be completed in early 2013, said Rick Savors, facilities commission spokesman.
New dormitories at the schools are under construction “and pretty much on budget and on schedule,” Savors said.
About $16 million has been spent; work has included demolition, abatement and site work, he said. The buildings are set to be complete in February, about one month behind the target.
The deaf school now is projected to have 55,185 square feet of academic space, down from 64,898 square feet. The blind school is to have 56,728 square feet, up from 55,649 square feet.
Officials at the two schools, which sit side by side on a large tract north of Morse Road and west of Sinclair Road, declined to comment, referring questions to either the facilities commission or the state Department of Education.
“The two schools themselves are very much involved in the process of designing the buildings and figuring out how they’re going to operate,” Savors said. “It’s a joint venture.”
School officials might be leery of complaining about the scaled-back plan because they are employees of the state, said Bryan Williams, a lobbyist for the nonunion Associated Builders and Contractors of Ohio.
“Did you diminish the size and scope, and if so, how much?” said Williams, a former Republican state legislator who also sits on the state Board of Education, which operates the two schools.
The project got bogged down in controversy after nonunion contractors blamed the high bid prices on a provision requiring union labor. That “project labor agreement” had been instituted by the former director of the facilities commission, Richard Murray. Before being chosen by Gov. Ted Strickland to head the commission, Murray led an organization dedicated to helping trade unions get construction contracts.
A report by the Ohio inspector general later accused Murray of having abused his position in an attempt to steer work to union firms statewide. Making the deaf- and blind-school projects union-only would have resulted in $145,000 in payments to a union local to which Murray belonged and to the Laborers-Employers Cooperation and Education Trust, the pro-union group that Murray directed for more than a decade.
In August 2010, Murray ordered the buildings redesigned. Two months later, the facilities commission board dropped the union-only requirement.
Savors couldn’t say exactly what has taken so long to get to the point of rebidding the project.
The project still will pay “prevailing wage,” or wages set by union pay, even though board members of the facilities commission who were appointed by Gov. John Kasich said they would no longer fund prevailing-wage projects.
Prevailing wage is a requirement because the project is not a school-district project, but a state project with funding that didn’t come through the facilities commission, Savors said. Instead, the project was funded by money specifically designated by the legislature.
Expansions of academic buildings at the state schools for the deaf and blind have been on hold since July 2010, when bids came in 41 percent higher than estimates, but revised plans were put out for bid last week.
The Ohio School Facilities Commission won’t know until early November, when the bids are due back, whether they are within the required 10 percent of the projected cost, about $22.7 million. The expansions now will be 15 percent smaller than in the 2010 design, and a union-only “project labor agreement” has been revoked .
If all goes as planned, the additions would be completed in early 2013, said Rick Savors, facilities commission spokesman.
New dormitories at the schools are under construction “and pretty much on budget and on schedule,” Savors said.
About $16 million has been spent; work has included demolition, abatement and site work, he said. The buildings are set to be complete in February, about one month behind the target.
The deaf school now is projected to have 55,185 square feet of academic space, down from 64,898 square feet. The blind school is to have 56,728 square feet, up from 55,649 square feet.
Officials at the two schools, which sit side by side on a large tract north of Morse Road and west of Sinclair Road, declined to comment, referring questions to either the facilities commission or the state Department of Education.
“The two schools themselves are very much involved in the process of designing the buildings and figuring out how they’re going to operate,” Savors said. “It’s a joint venture.”
School officials might be leery of complaining about the scaled-back plan because they are employees of the state, said Bryan Williams, a lobbyist for the nonunion Associated Builders and Contractors of Ohio.
“Did you diminish the size and scope, and if so, how much?” said Williams, a former Republican state legislator who also sits on the state Board of Education, which operates the two schools.
The project got bogged down in controversy after nonunion contractors blamed the high bid prices on a provision requiring union labor. That “project labor agreement” had been instituted by the former director of the facilities commission, Richard Murray. Before being chosen by Gov. Ted Strickland to head the commission, Murray led an organization dedicated to helping trade unions get construction contracts.
A report by the Ohio inspector general later accused Murray of having abused his position in an attempt to steer work to union firms statewide. Making the deaf- and blind-school projects union-only would have resulted in $145,000 in payments to a union local to which Murray belonged and to the Laborers-Employers Cooperation and Education Trust, the pro-union group that Murray directed for more than a decade.
In August 2010, Murray ordered the buildings redesigned. Two months later, the facilities commission board dropped the union-only requirement.
Savors couldn’t say exactly what has taken so long to get to the point of rebidding the project.
The project still will pay “prevailing wage,” or wages set by union pay, even though board members of the facilities commission who were appointed by Gov. John Kasich said they would no longer fund prevailing-wage projects.
Prevailing wage is a requirement because the project is not a school-district project, but a state project with funding that didn’t come through the facilities commission, Savors said. Instead, the project was funded by money specifically designated by the legislature.