By GARRETT SAGER
Hays Post
On Monday at the Rockwell Administration Center, the Hays USD 489 Board of Education unanimously approved Naboltz Construction as the new construction manager at risk for the district.
The six board members in charge of rating the firms based off a state-made rubric all had Naboltz rated the best, but that would not necessarily mean that it would be selected by the board.
However, board members chose Naboltz over three other firms for the position. All four firms had representatives present at the meeting, and Lance Bickle, board president, made it a point to thank those representatives in attendance for their efforts.
“I would like to personally thank all of you for the time and effort you put in to put everything together and all the information that was shared was great. It gave us a good overview on how your companies work and everything that you brought to the table,” he said.
Naboltz partnered with Paul Wertenberger Construction of Hays for the CMAR competition. The partnership brings together a large regional CMAR with expertise such as Naboltz with a local contractor with experience working with USD 489.
Naboltz is the on-call CMAR for Hays Medical Center and has six years of experience working with Paul Wertenberger on projects at HaysMed.
USD 489 and Naboltz still must finalize their contract before moving forward.
The board was set to approve a facility improvement planner in Monday’s meeting, as well. In Thissen’s experience, he said, larger school districts have facility improvement planner, which he said is beneficial.
The facility improvement planner was discussed before the CMAR because, in case of another failed bond issue, the district had something in place to help improve the facilities around the district.
A committee of five designed criteria and then held meetings on Jan. 9 with three companies for the position.
The committee rated Performance Solution as best, however, Sarah Rankin, board vice president, raised concerns the district has since hired a new architect and approved a new CMAR and did not want to pay for duplication.
“The concern I have is duplication and how we can avoid it,” she said.
Luke Oborny, board member,said the CMAR and architect are strictly for bond issues.
“The architect and construction manager at risk is all bond. If the bond doesn’t go through, they really don’t have much to do, that’s what they are focused on,” he said. “The improvement planner is more capital outlay, a strategic plan.”
The idea is to bring in an unbiased third party into the district to make sure the district is spending its money wisely, Oborny said.
“It really makes the district more efficient,” he said.
Concerns were still raised by Rankin, and Bickle would later add his concerns. Both Bickle and Rankin wanted to know how it all tied back into the bond issue.
According to Thissen, the facility planner would pick up the pieces that were left behind from the bond issue.
The motion was later taken off the table and will be moved to next week’s meeting.
The last item approved by the board was the inservice day on Feb. 8.
It was asked that the board approve for a full inservice day for the faculty on Feb. 8 rather than just a half inservice day, giving students the day off due to the district being closed Jan. 16 following the ice storm. The item was approved unanimously to make Feb. 8 a full service day.