By GARRETT SAGER
Hays Post

During Monday night’s Hays USD 489 Board of Education meeting, with input from Superintendent John Thissen, the board was able to come to a unanimous decision on selecting DLR Group as the architectural firm to head up the district’s capital outlay plan.

Hollis and Miller; Schaefer, Johnson, Cox, Frey; and DLR all were taken into consideration for the job, but the board rested on DLR.

“DLR and their track record in western Kansas really stood out,” said Lance Bickle, board president.

The most recent western Kansas successful bond issue for DLR was the award-winning work in Garden City, a $95 million bond issue.

Thissen said DLR was the best choice, but that the district had three good options.

“All three firms are excellent, anyone you decide on will be winners,” Thissen said.

Out of the three firms in consideration, DLR was the only firm that had passed a bond issue west of Salina of more than $50 million and has a success rate of 100 percent in western Kansas.

“The cost differences between the firms are minimal. This decision is not based on cost, it’s based on experience, it’s based on their track record,” said Luke Oborny, board member.

DLR has also been noted in doubling the original scope of a previously failed bond issue after switching to DLR according to Sarah Rankin, board vice president.

Many board members spoke on the communication the DLR had with all of the board members saying they were the only firm that called each of them multiple times to make sure that all their questions were answered.

“They went above and beyond with their communication with us board members,” Bickle said.

DLR will bring their own engineers into work on the projects, a luxury that many firms are not able to offer.

“Many firms do not have engineers on staff,” Thissen said.

The discussion Monday on which firm to select was brief as most of the discussion was held at last week’s board meeting.