Approvals allow for Peters Township High School project to move forward
Moving forward with the construction of a new Peters Township High School and developing other parts of the former Rolling Hills Country Club property has taken the turn of coming up with a cost estimate for the cost estimate.
The unusual situation involves storm-water management for the road that will divide the 190 acres between its owners, the school district to the west and the municipality to the east.
Engineers working for the township on the design of the road, the $7 million-plus cost of which is split between the two entities, originally planned for a detention pond on the eastern side to collect water runoff, while the school district did the same for its half. The professionals eventually determined that the most cost-effective measure would be to have just one pond, at a low-elevation point on the school’s side.
“If we say, ‘No, we’re not going to entertain this’ or ‘No, we’re not going to do it,’ then they’re going to have to go to Plan B, which is going to be likely more expensive,” Superintendent Jeannine French explained during Peters Township School Board’s Aug. 6 meeting. “And we’re on the hook for half of that.”
Prior to the meeting, no work had been done toward implementing the single-pond solution, according to Mark Duane of Collier Township-based Hayes Design Group Architects, which is providing architectural and engineering services for the high school project.
“We didn’t do anything yet, until we got some approval,” Duane told the board. “We haven’t met with the township engineers to know the scope. So we were wondering if we could at least just have authorization to move forward.”
Such meetings are necessary, he said, to determine whether the capacity provided by one detention pond would be sufficient, and then to arrive at an overall cost estimate.
After Duane took some time to calculate the approximate amount of hourly fees for the personnel involved, board members agreed to a cost not to exceed $5,650, with the anticipated full project price to be presented at the board’s Aug. 20 meeting. William Merrell voted against the measure.
The original motion came without an attached monetary figure, but board members Rebecca Bowman and Daniel Taylor put forth amendments to list an amount and place a cap on expenditures.
The board on Aug. 6 also approved payment not to exceed $33,672 for additional services Hayes performed related to the high school’s design beyond the original scope, including the proposed bus plaza, site circulation, and building safety and security. The same measure had been voted down in June, but only Merrell dissented the second time around.