RE1J working on bond measure next steps

Hiring owner’s rep and considering enviro impacts

[  By Kendra Walker  ]

With the successful passage of ballot initiative 5A, the bond measure that will provide $95 million in funding to address school facility expansions and improvements, the Gunnison Watershed School District is now preparing next steps in moving the project forward. 

During the GWSD board of directors meeting on Monday, December 12, superintendent Leslie Nichols shared an update with the board members. 

“We are in the middle of the process of hiring an owner’s representative,” said Nichols. She explained that the district’s selection committee will review the 10 applications they have received and narrow down the applicants to between three and five finalists. Nichols said interviews with the finalists are scheduled for January 11. 

“By mid-January we anticipate having an owner’s representative on board,” she said. “Next steps will then be to go through processes to determine our architect and our general contractor.”

Donny Davol, a Master of Environmental Studies student at Western, spoke during public comment and requested the school board consider the environmental impacts of the new buildings as the district moves forward with the design phase. 

“More emphasis needs to get placed on the selection of materials and actual design of these buildings,” he said. “Steel, spray foam and concrete are high carbon emitters. We need to rethink how buildings get built to reduce these impacts and ask, what are we doing with these buildings to mitigate the environmental impacts. It’s something we need to put as a priority for taxpayers’ money.”

The school board also approved the voter-passed bond resolution and approved a resolution for the mill levy certification on all Gunnison County taxable property. The bond will add 12.23 mills for a total mill levy of 32.998 mills. The district will go to market for calling the bonds in January. 

“Everything is happening as it should be, and our staff is excited about the next design phase,” said Nichols. “It will still be a minute before we have a process for that with our architect, and then we will have a better timeline of when we’ll actually be able to see progress on the ground.”