Phase 3 Moving Forward

FARMINGTON BOARD ACCEPTS $1.1 MILLION DIRT WORK BID

FARMINGTON —A new 30-year bond issue will generate more than $4 million for Farmington School District that will be dedicated to building a football stadium and other athletic facilities for the high school.

Phase 3 of the high school campus includes a football/soccer stadium, concession stand and restrooms, pressbox and separate track and field facility.

Farmington School Board last week adopted a resolution to authorize the issuance and acceptance of the bonds.

The district received four bids to purchase the bonds, with Raymond James & Associates, an investment banking firm, submitting the lowest interest rate of 3.3 percent, according to Kevin Faught with Stephens Inc., in Fayetteville.

The bond issue has a principal of $4.5 million, with $4.4 million available for construction. Faught said the difference will be used for fees and costs in issuing the bonds.

The transaction will close Dec. 12 and the money will go to the school that day. Faught said

the average annual debt payment for the bond issue will be $240,000. The first payment will be due August 2018.

Superintendent Bryan Law said the money will be placed in the district’s capital improvement project fund. With the new money, the district will have about $9.5 million in this account.

As part of Phase 3, the school board last week accepted a bid of $1.13 million from Crowder Construction for site preparation. Law said bids for dirt work were much higher than expected but when talking to construction firms, learned the district will have to move about double the dirt for Phase 3 as was moved for Phase 1.

In addition, Law said he continues to meet with the Phase 3 construction manager and architects to go through design plans and construction costs. School officials have realized they are wanting more than the district can afford.

“We’re going through it item by item and beginning to cut things back,” Law said.

It will take about four months to finish dirt work and that will give the district time to redraw plans, Law added.

In other business, the School Board gave Law the green light to negotiate on selling 6 acres to the city of Farmington for a new public works building. The city is interested in the northwest corner of undeveloped land next to Williams Elementary School on Broyles Street.

Board members indicated they would be willing to consider selling 325 feet of frontage along Broyles to the back property line. They wanted to protect the rest of the land for any future development.

Law said the land has been appraised three times, with the first appraisal giving a value of $25,300 per acre and the last two appraisals, $22,500 per acre.

He said he believes the board would be interested in selling the land for a price that falls within those parameters.

“As long as we can fall within that range, I’ll bring something back to the board,” Law said. “If not, I won’t feel comfortable bringing it back to the board.”

The board also agreed to requests for utility easements on the land from the city of Fayetteville and Black Hills Energy. Fayetteville wants to run a sewer line across the front of the property along Broyles and Black Hills Energy wants an easement across the back of the property for a gas pipeline.

As it has done in the past, the board approved a Christmas bonus for employees. Certified staff will receive $850 and classified staff will receive a 2.06 percent bonus with a minimum of $225.