PHS facilities to meet ADA standards
by Sue Mroz of The Review staff
PLYMOUTH – School Board members voted unanimously at the April 20 meeting to accept a base bid of $95,419 to bring some areas at Plymouth High School in compliance with ADA (Americans with Disability Act) standards.
Board members Jerry Prahl and Jeff Tauscheck were absent from the meeting.
Prior to voting, the board considered bids to provide toilet and shower facilities, accessible to those with disabilities, at PHS. The work is being completed as a result of recommendations stemming from a 2009 Civil Rights Compliance audit. The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction conducted the audit at PHS.
According to Richard Nieheuser, the district’s director of buildings and grounds, the work will take place in those bathrooms, which are most suitable on each floor of the building, and in the shower facilities in both the pool area and the girls’ locker room. The project will also include upgrades to the drinking fountains. All of these areas were identified during the audit for upgrades to meet the ADA requirements.
The work is scheduled to begin May 17 and be substantially completed by July 30.
A base bid to provide both male and female bathrooms and an alternate bid to complete the project, but with only a uni-sex bathroom on the second floor were presented. The bid for the complete project, for bathrooms and showers, etc., with only a unisex bathroom on the second floor of the facility was $88,907.
Nieheuser stressed that the difference in having both a boys’ and girls’ bathroom or just a unisex one on the second floor involves a philosophical debate.
Anne Gamoke, the district’s director of special education and pupil services, provided her input. “It’s not just a matter of accessibility,” she said. “There is also the privacy issue.
“We need to have both a male and female facility. We have students with a variety of disabilities and varying needs.”
Nieheuser pointed out that in the future, the men’s faculty restroom on the second floor could be converted into a unisex bathroom, if the board should decide to do so.
Board President Mark Rhyan said that he was surprised that converting one bathroom into a unisex facility on the second floor, rather than bringing both the girls’ and boy’s restrooms up to ADA code on that floor resulted in a difference of only $6,512 on the alternate bid.
“One would think it would be less than half,” Rhyan said. The Selmer Co. Construction Services, Green Bay, is the general contractor for the project. The budget breakdown is as follows:
. Electrical – K-W Electric, $1,500 base bid.
. Plumbing – Haucke Plumbing & Heating, $39,702 base bid.
. Tile – Gegare, $6,640 base bid.
. Paint – Spies, $2,700.
. Partitions and accessories – LaForce, $3,631.
. Automatic door operator – Automatic Entrances, $6,260.
. General contracting fee – Selmer, $15,030.
. Construction management fee – Selmer, $5,282.
. Allowance – $6,000.
. Ten-percent contingency -- $8,674.
. Total base bid – $95,419.
The budget was established using the lowest qualified bid submitted from each trade.
