Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
The Colfax school board will seek another option to build a new track after rejecting the lone bid for the project Monday night.
A bid of $318,000 from Palouse River Rock, Colfax, was declined at the board’s regular meeting after Superintendent Jerry Pugh suggested it was too high compared to cost projections.
“We will look at other alternatives at our disposal,” Pugh told the board. “We’re coming back, we’re crunching numbers. We’re vetting everything right now.”
The district and its architects on the project, Architects West of Coeur D’Alene, had gone out to bid in March for the track work, which includes partial demolition, laying a new base, compacting it and creating a two-inch lift to the new surface.
Pugh said he will confer with Architects West on the next step, which may be to send out a new bid or other arrangement.
“It’s just a little setback. I think we can overcome it,” Pugh said.
Stating that the goal is to take the next step as soon as possible, Pugh noted Monday night “the end of May for sure” as a timeline. One way or another, the district intends to put in a new track this summer.
Replacing the 33-year-old Colfax track is part of an overall plan for improvements to the district’s athletic complex, which features the track and football field.
Total funding for the planned track/athletic complex work as of last month included $40,000 from a Whitman County .09 fund grant, $250,000 from a state Recreation and Conservation Office grant (to the city of Colfax), $80,000 from the City of Colfax, $160,000 from the Colfax School District and $57,000 raised in private donations by the C-Town Project, a group of volunteers seeking funding for the track. The $587,000 total may increase with more donations.
Funding for a joint city/school district project for new restrooms to serve the track complex and Schmuck Park is included.
Phase Two of the athletic complex, as funding allows, would include recrowning the football field, new fencing, new field lights, irrigation system and scoreboard replacement.
Last fall, the school board voted to increase its contribution to the athletic complex effort by $30,000 after the scope of the project was expanded to consider the whole complex. The added funding covered the district’s hiring of an architect, Keith Dixon of Architects West.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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