March 29, 2024
Local News

New Lenox School District 122 planning for 2021 capital improvement projects

In June, the New Lenox School District 122 Board of Education voted to approve to begin seeking bids for a list of capital improvement projects for the summer of 2021.

The list of projects are in the district’s five-year capital construction plan.

Chief School Business official Bob Groos said the district evaluates its needs on a yearly basis, so this year’s projects were determined a year ago. The bids were released Oct. 21 and he expects to have the bids back in late November.

The bids will then be evaluated and he will bring final proposals to the board where they can be accepted or rejected.

The total estimated cost for the 12 projects is $2.4 million. The projects include pavement maintenance at Martino Junior High, Liberty Junior High, Cherry Hill, Haven Administration building and Nelson campus.

Other projects include running track and long jump maintenance at Liberty and Martino, installing a second 275-ton chiller at Spencer Pointe/Crossing. District-wide projects include adding card swipe readers, providing surge suppression system on incoming electrical service and various in-house maintenance.

The chiller is 15 years old and nearing the end of its life cycle. The chiller was undersized for the size of the building, so it has been working at max capacity the entire time, Groos said. However, that project does not need to be rushed.

Groos said the pavement project at the Nelson campus is one of the most critical. The parking lot is more than 20 years old, he said.

“It’s been patched up a million times,” he said during the board meeting on Oct. 20. “It’s time to finally tear that up all the way down to the gravel and lay brand new asphalt on it. That needs to be fixed before more damage is caused.”

Groos said the district typically gets six-to-seven bidders for each project.

Since the summer of 2009, the district has completed $25 million worth of projects and have been paid for with existing fund balances.

“When we look at our fund balance, we want to keep it at a certain level and percentage and not dip too low and have shortages,” he said. “We want to have a cushion.”

The district will continue to look at how it will move forward with the projects and paying for them.