ACS Board rejects bids for cafeteria renovation project

The Argos School Board members agreed Monday night to reject the bids received for the upcoming cafeteria renovation project. The project will be re-bid in June.

The project includes remodeling and an addition to the cafeteria, plus replacing the rooftop HVAC units that serve the cafeteria and gymnasium, some carpeting and replacing lockers.

Superintendent Ned Speicher said attempts will be made to bring bids within the estimated budget of $2.7 million.

“Boy, in today’s world with the inflation going on, we anticipated about a 30 percent increase, but they were a little more than 40 percent increase. We’ve had talks with contractors and we think we can get it down in the budgets by re-bidding it so our architects are working on that,” commented Speicher.

This is a project that will be paid for with the sale of bonds, but Speicher stressed that it will have no impact on the tax rate.

In a separate project, the board did approve a quote from Clean Air Environmental at a cost of $5,960 to replace tile floor in the cafeteria that has asbestos in it. That project will be complete in July.