SouthArk Board approves construction group, timeline for administration building

The board of trustees for the South Arkansas Community College approved Flynn Construction company to make the renovations to the administration building on Tuesday.

The building, which is classified as a historical site, caught fire in April after a lightning strike to its roof. In August, the board voted to recommend Taylor Kempkes Architects, based in Hot Springs, to be the architect for the project. The architect will be checking at least monthly, but may come more often if needed.

Flynn Co. was the low bid, with consideration for the historical aspect of the project, at roughly $3.6 million. The board also approved paying an additional $215,000 to expedite the process.

The construction is expected to be completed by the beginning of July so that everybody has time to get back into the building before school starts in fall. The goal is to have construction started in the beginning of December to get it completed on time.

In addition to the project bid, the board voted to approve the administration looking into hiring a construction manager to oversee the project on a day to day basis. The funding for it wasn’t originally allocated, in part because the insurance wouldn’t cover it.

However, board member Gary Griffis voiced concerns that having members of the administration as the day to day contact would end up taking away time that they could be spending on things with a greater direct impact on students.

The board voted in favor of adding up to $125,000

to the budget to find somebody to fill the role. Somebody will not be hired before construction starts, which means the actual allocation will likely end up lower.

The position will have to be placed open for bidding, which would take at least three weeks. It would then also need to be approved by the legislature. This would mean that the person hired would probably not be able to start until mid-January. If the bid ends up being less than $45,000 then it won’t need to be approved by the legislature, which could allow them to start sooner.

Work can still start before somebody is hired, since the board didn’t want to extend the timeline by waiting, and workers would report to members of the administration in the interim.