The Inter-Mountain photo by Edgar Kelley Randolph County Schools Superintendent Dr. Shawn Dilly speaks with BOE members, from left, Rachel Anger, Phil Chua and Sherri Collett during the most recent Board of Education meeting this week.

ELKINS — The Randolph County Board of Education has approved a bid of more than $720,000 for work to be done at the Randolph Technical Center.

During this week’s regular Board of Education meeting, the BOE unanimously voted to approve a bid from Wolf Creek Contracting, which was discussed during the minutes/agreements/contracts section of the meeting. 

Wolf Creek Contracting, based in Waterford, Ohio, submitted a bid of $720,453 for the RTC entrance and sprinkler project. Wolf Creek’s bid was more than $100,000 less than the next closest bidder, which was requesting $885,000.

“Wolf Creek Contracting came in $120,000 under what we were anticipating for the budget of this project,” Dr. Shawn Dilly, the superintendent of schools, said. “So we are hoping that we can potentially expand the scope.

“The other bidders on that were actually exceeding the projected amount, so we are recommending to move forward with the lowest bidder, in this case Wolf Creek Contracting. So we are excited about getting some of those sprinkler systems and safety protocols established at the Technical Center.”

BOE member Sherri Collett asked Dilly where the funding was coming from for the project. Dilly requested that Brad Smith, Randolph County Schools director of finance and treasurer, answer the question.

“It is funded through an SBA (School Building Authority) grant,” Smith said. “The county did set aside $100,0000 as a match at the time. That money has already been set aside and if we stay under budget we could potentially not spend all of that $100,000. Basically, if we gather $200,000 worth of invoices, they will reimburse us and we can actually save some dollars.” 

Dilly told the BOE that work on the project would get underway sometime this summer.

“It’s my understanding that they are going to try and start this summer when the students leave,” Dilly said. “We may see some planning stuff up to that point, but they are going to break ground at the end of the school year.”

Anger asked Dilly if the project would be complete by the time students came back to school at the end of summer break.

“I’d have to check the scope, but I think a majority of the work should be completed prior to school starting,” Dilly said.

Anger then asked if there would be any other activity during the summer months at the Technical Center.

“Just the nursing programs can sometimes roll over,” Dilly said in reply. “But that wouldn’t be something that would be impacted in this case.”

The next Randolph County Board of Education meeting is scheduled for Tueday, April 15 at 5:30 p.m. at the BOE office.