D86 Board to Vote on Canceling Hallway Improvements Project

The District 86 Board of Education’s facilities committee recommended after a three-hour meeting Thursday that the board direct administration to rebid several previously approved summer projects and defer others to future years, board member and facilities committee chairman Ed Corcoran said.

Among the items that the committee wants to defer is $372,000 in main hallway renovations at Hinsdale Central and Hinsdale South that would include new lighting, flooring, and paint.

“Those projects are being recommended to be deferred until we are able to review the cost for doing that on a campus-wide basis,” said Corcoran, who serves on the committee along with Michael Kuhn and Richard Skoda.

Corcoran, an engineer who was elected to the board in April, said administrative costs for small projects like the approved hallway improvements can exceed 30 percent of the overall project cost.

“You want to do the projects on a bigger basis to drive your unit cost and your entire project cost down,” he said.

Projects that would go forward if the board approves the facilities committee’s recommendation would be the new girls locker room and trainer's room at South, the new batting cages and gym ticket office at Central, and the metal ladders and stairs to, and railings surrounding, rooftop equipment at South.

The scope on the Central ticket office project could be expanded to include a new concession area, and the metalwork could be expanded to both campuses.

Corcoran said cancelation fees charged to the district for deferring some projects and rebidding others could total as much as $29,000, of which $17,000 could come from Gilbane, Inc., the district’s general contractor. Corcoran said the district would attempt to negotiate those fees down to a lower amount.

The full board will consider the facilities committee recommendations at its May 20 meeting.