During Thursday afternoon’s special called meeting, the Brownwood ISD Board of Trustees unanimously approved a contract with Construction Company of Abilene to serve as the Construction Manager at Risk (CMAR) for the Gordon Wood Stadium Project in conjunction with the 2023 Bond Program.
Gordon Wood Stadium bond projects include a new two-story press box with an elevator; new concessions and restrooms for home and visitor sides; new sports field lighting; new synthetic football turf; home bleacher seating additions; and accessibility improvements to parking, walkways and bleachers.
“There were two firms who put in for that and submitted proposals and went through the interview process,” said BISD Superintendent Dr. Joe Young. “Teinert Construction, out of Abilene, was chosen for that project. We feel that with their past work experience, with the qualifications they were able to submit, that they’ll do a good job. We appreciate the board taking this next step by approving someone so we can continue the design process with our architect and get built what the voters approved to get built with the quality that they approved and expect.”
Tammy Gray, BISD Bond Program Manager, further elaborated on the decision making process during the meeting.
“On July 11 we put out the RFP for Construction Manager at Risk for the Gordon Wood Stadium renovation,” Gray said. “Responses were due back to us by July 25. We had two companies submit a proposal – Teinert Construction and Waldrop Construction. Between July 31 and Aug. 3 calls were made to five previous clients of each company for a past performance rating. The selection committee met Aug. 10 and scored the other two sections of the rubric based on the proposal documents. We met again on Aug. 23 to conduct interviews with each company. After the interviews were complete we confirmed the scores and based on those rubrics Teinert Construction was found to be the most qualified to perform the work at Gordon Wood Stadium.”
The BISD Board of Trustees also unanimously approved the 2023-24 general fund budget in the amount of $38,969,850 – up from $36,189,846 a year ago. The school nutrition budget in the amount of $2,573,578 – an increase from $2,378,973 last year – and the debt service fund budget in the amount of $5,898,578 – an increase from $2,304,025 in 2022-23 – were also approved.
The Board also unanimously approved a $1.04 tax rate per $100 valuation – the same as last year despite the passage of a near $60 million bond in May for campus improvements.
The maintenance tax will comprise $0.7137 while the interest and sinking fund makes up the remaining $0.3283. Last year’s rate of $1.04 featured $0.86340 for maintenance and operations and $0.17859 for the interest and sinking fund. The interest and sinking fund tax revenue is used to pay for bonded indebtedness on construction, equipment or both. The bonds and the tax rate necessary to pay those bonds were approved by the voters of the district. The total amount of outstanding and unpaid bonded indebtedness is $71,340,000.
Also passed unanimously on the consent agenda were:
- Budget Amendments
- 4-H Adjunct Faculty Agreement
- Property/Casualty Insurance for 2023-24
(STORY COURTESY OF DERRICK STUCKLY, BROWNWOODNEWS.COM)