The Covington Schools Board of Education voted to send the design work for a new softball field, slated for construction at Glenn O. Swing Elementary School, out to bid in split vote last week.
After some trepidation from some of the board members, the board cast a vote with Board President Tom Haggard, board members Glenda Huff and Kareem Simpson voting in favor and board members Stephen Gastright and Hannah Edelen voting against.
The softball field has been the subject of board discussion since last year with much of the conservation focusing on the project’s cost and location. The field was originally slated to occur alongside a larger construction project that would see various renovations and improvements to the Holmes Campus.
The district solicited letters of interest from designers in February, and statements from Haggard around that time suggested the board expected to get initial bids back sometime in March. Eric Neff, one of the district’s administrators, confirmed with LINK nky that the district had received some interest from architectural firms after the vote in February.
In spite of this, in the subsequent months, the board switched from its original request format to a design-build request format, which many board members believed would help control costs.
Before the vote was cast last week, however, board member Gastright expressed some concerns about what he viewed as a lack of detail in the request for proposals. Gastright works as an architect professionally and was among the first of the board members to draw attention to building project costs in the district. He has been instrumental in many of the revisions since last year. In Gastright’s view, the request for proposal lacked key information, which could lead to more costs down the road if the district needed to ask contractors to perform more work.
Board member Huff, on the other hand, felt it was important to get the ball rolling on the project, given that it had gone through so many rounds of amendments. After some more discussion, Haggard called for a motion, which Huff made and Haggard seconded. The board then cast its 3 to 2 vote in favor of sending the project to bid.
The district will begin advertising its request for design proposals later this month.