The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Community School could break ground in March
The Gunnison RE1J school district has chosen FCI Constructors Inc. as the general contractor to oversee four of the school expansion and renovation projects being started in the valley this spring.
A seven-member committee from the school district made their selection after interviews in December with seven general contracting firms from around the state. Three members of the Blythe Group & Co. team, which is overseeing the project, also served as consultants on the hiring committee.
“There is always a lot of discussion when you’re making that type of decision, but after meeting with and reviewing the references of all the applicants, it was ultimately a unanimous decision by the committee,” says superintendent Jon Nelson.
Part of the committee’s rationale for choosing the Grand Junction-based FCI Constructors was the firm’s extensive experience managing projects in Gunnison and other mountain communities, including several projects at Western State College.
“The district actually voted and selected the firm based on everything from their experience in mountainous areas and the work they’ve done at Western State [College] to the fact that they have a local superintendent that lives in Gunnison,” says Roy Blythe, principal and owner of the Blythe Group & Co.
Blythe says the firm is also “familiar with local subcontractors and suppliers for materials. They presented a team of managers and superintendents that had a lot of school experience, which is important because of the tight calendar we’re working with a lot has to be done.”
FCI Constructors will be responsible for hiring subcontractors to start the structure and foundation construction on the Gunnison High School, the largest of the district’s projects, and the Crested Butte Community School as early as mid-March, says Blythe.
With the foundations and exterior walls being built through the summer, contractors will be able to work inside on the expansions during the following winter.
The general contractor will also start ordering the items that will take the longest to arrive, like the boilers and kitchen appliances, so they are available when construction is far enough along that they can be installed.
“A lot of long-lead items take 12 to 16 weeks to get delivered, so we’re asking that they send out bids in March so we can get that stuff into production. Another round of bids will happen in spring and summer for the next stage of construction,” says Blythe.
The Lake Elementary School, where administration offices will be housed, will be getting some early attention by contractors, with upgrades to the layout of the building and wiring that will bring the school’s technological capacity up to 21st-century standards.
A separate contractor will handle construction at both the Gunnison Valley School and Marble Charter School, where different options are being explored, including modular construction.
Other firms that were interviewed either did not have the bonding capacity to take on the project, which could have left the district holding the bill if a company were to go bankrupt in the middle of the project, or did not come in with a competitive bid.
“[FCI Constructors] weren’t necessarily the lowest bidder, but one of the companies built in such a small profit to their bid that whether or not they would be able to work at that price, we were worried that we might run into problems down the road, and it would cost the district more money,” says Nelson.
According to Blythe, who has been working with FCI Constructors sporadically since 1994, the firm came with high recommendations and references that say they will use local subcontractors and suppliers.
The district’s contract for FCI Constructors is currently under legal review.
