Abby K-12 awards bid for dome
The Abbotsford Board of Education officially awarded engineering and architecture firm HSR Associates of La Crosse a contract to design and oversee plans and construction of the FEMA multipurpose dome/storm shelter during its monthly meeting on Monday.
The decision follows on the heels of the district’s facilities committee meeting from last week, which advanced the proposal to the full board meeting after HSR was the sole request for proposal (RFP) received for the FEMA dome/ storm shelter.
FEMA officially awarded the $2.1 million grant last month. Abbotsford must match 25 percent of the construction, with the district’s total cost estimated to be around one million dollars.
While HSR was the sole firm to formally submit a bid, superintendent Ryan Bargender highlighted the district’s work with the firm in the past.
“They were involved with the classroom additions a couple years ago - two in the middle school and four in the elementary,” Bargender said. “So we are familiar with them and their services.”
Bill Simonson and Trent Schott were both on hand Monday night to answer questions regarding the dome, and to explain their company and its expertise in working with schools and their various construction needs.
“We do primarily K-12 school work throughout the Midwest, and that’s probably about 60-70 percent of all the work in the office that we do,” Simonson said on Monday. “So we have a lot of good experience of working with districts like yours.”
HSR Associates is a full-service architectural and engineering firm in La Crosse that has been in operation for 66 years. Simonson is the president, and has been with the firm for 39 years.
HSR has a staff of nearly 40, with employees ranging from architects, landscape architects, interior design, mechanical and electrical engineering and plumbing in office. Simonson said this allows his firm to be flexible and to come up with fast solutions to a changing environment.
“We work side by side in the office, and that’s a huge benefit to not only us but certainly our clients because we can get quicker service and quicker answers to questions and quicker response time.” Simonson also highlighted HSR’s past experience in working with FEMA related projects and grants, as well as other storm shelter projects.
“So we got experience with both, quite honestly, in terms of the dome structure versus conventional safe room construction. We do have a lot of good experience with FEMA and their requirements and the ingredients that they require for meeting their expectations of the grant.”
Board member Eric Brodhagen brought up the idea of possibly doing a conventional safe room construction versus the dome, but Bargender felt that the district might be past the point of that discussion.
“Just a reminder that the dome structure was approved by FEMA,” Bargender said. “So I don’t know if we can change it. It could be doable, but we might be locked in as a dome.”
With HSR being awarded the bid, Schott and Simonson said the next step will be to have a kick-off meeting in the next few weeks to confirm the dome plans, to confirm budgets and to test budgets and test the program and to have a discussion on the project and expectations regarding the budget.
“The ingredients of the dome, we kinda got that nailed down and want to reaffirm those things and talk about those components. We might bring up a few suggestions along the way,” Simonson said. “Along with that, we want to really start to take a good look at the budget and make sure the budget is in line with the plan. We understand your grants have been approved already, so that’s a huge step in the right direction.”
_ The board approved a motion to accept the resignations of Kelly Sillampa (library media specialist), Kelsey Anderson (business education teacher and FBLA advisor), Amy Schunk (ELA 6-12), Jesse Meddaugh (district technology specialist) and Rebekah Dorwaldt (kindergarten teacher).
_ The board approved the hiring of Brett Nelson as a business education teacher.
_ The board approved a joint school board meeting between Abbotsford and Colby to discuss the next steps regarding the consolidation study. July 12 at 6 p.m. at the Colby School District has been set as the primary date, with July 15 as a back-up date.
