PORT ANGELES — Bruch and Bruch Construction, Inc. submitted the lowest of the three bids the Port Angeles School District received for its Monroe Playfield Project at the public bid opening Thursday.
The bids were opened at the district’s administration building at 905 W. Ninth St. The school board at its March 9 meeting will vote on approving the Bruch and Bruch bid.
The Port Angeles company bid $620,218 for site work that includes site demolition and preparation; asphalt paving; soil amendments; irrigation; temporary erosion control; and concrete curb ramps. The range for the base bid was $440,000 to $465,000, not including state sales tax.
2 Grade, also of Port Angeles, submitted a bid of $684,675 and Diverse Earthworks of Lake Stevens submitted a bid of $948,527.
With total budget of $1.58 million, the Monroe Playfield Project will be constructed on the site of the former Monroe Elementary School that closed in 2005 and was razed in 2018.
Design plans show a multi-use field for football, soccer and softball; a practice/warm-up area; bleachers; grass viewing areas; and a quarter-mile walking path. Lights, restrooms and a concession stand are not part of the present project. However, conduit and sewer will be installed in preparation for them to be added at a later date.
In the meantime, bathrooms in the portable building on the 6-acre property will be upgraded for public use.
Funding for construction primarily comes from the sale of the old district administrative services building on East Fourth Street for $950,000 and property it owned on Mount Pleasant for $118,000. The project also will be funded out of the $52.6 million capital projects levy voters approved in 2020.
That levy has already funded the construction of safety vestibules at all five district elementary schools. It is also funding renovation of Stevens Middle School which is currently in the design concept phase.
The Integrus architecture firm the district hired to manage the Stevens Middle School design, execution and construction will make a formal presentation to the board at its March 9 meeting of the educational specifications it created with input from Stevens Middle School staff and students.
After the board votes to approve the ed specs, the project will move to the schematic design phase.
Renovation of Stevens will commence after the district finishes collecting capital levy funds at the end of 2025.
Superintendent Marty Brewer said he understands people are impatient to see shovels hit the dirt on the project.
“I know there are a lot of questions around that,” Brewer said. “The state will not allow us to secure a contract until we have the money physically in our possession.”
Work on the Monroe Playfield Project will likely not start until May, not due to funding, but because that is when the ground will be dry enough for heavy construction work. The goal is to have the field ready this fall.
KCDA, a state schools purchasing cooperative, is handling bidding and contracts for installation of the turf field. That work will probably start around the first of July. (KCDA is also working with the Quillayute School District on the new Spartan Stadium at Forks High School.)
The district originally put the Monroe Playfield Project out for bid in March 2022 with the goal of having the field ready that September. After the district received just one bid for $1,846,800 — about 15 percent over budget — it rethought the process and divided it into two separate projects: one for the site work and the other for the turf installation.
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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached at paula.hunt@soundpublishing.com.
