General Contractor Selected for North Oconee High Project

The Oconee County Board of Education at its meeting Monday selected Kevin Price General Contractors, Inc. to complete construction of the North Oconee High School All Sports Field House.

The two-story -- funded through the- will be equipped with a total of five locker rooms with toilets and showers, a meeting room, a storage room, a training room, an equipment room, and four offices with separate toilets and showers. Restrooms and concessions will be available on both sides of the facility.

It will be the first time the Watkinsville-based company will work on a project for the school system, said Mark Channell, assistant superintendent for operations and student services.

Six companies submitted bids within about $400,000 of one another and Kevin Price General Contractors ranked No. 1 based on both the lowest bid --$3,235,000-- and the best score --94.75/100 points-- when qualifications put into the bid specs were considered, he said.

The biggest difference between the six was the time frame that the companies said they could finish the project, Channell said.

In order to bring the cost down further, valued engineering was used to reach a revised price of $2,987,370.

"We feel good that the valued engineering is not going to harm the integrity of the buildings themselves," Channell said.  "There were just some things we thought we could cut back on and save the system some money."

The company is aware the school board encourages participation of local subcontractors and vendors, Channell added.

Malcom Bryan, a construction advisor to the school system, along with the architectural firm Southern A&E, LLC contracted by the system each week will check on the progress of the work at North Oconee and also the , he said.

"The ultimate bottom line is we just want to make sure we've got a smooth, clean, very nice job without any major issues," board member Mark Thomas commented.

The approval of Kevin Price Construction as the general contractor came with the stipulation that "change orders totaling, equal to, or in excess of $25,000 will require the approval of the board at either a regularly scheduled session or called session depending on the time that a change order occurs. Such approval should occur within 24 hours of the receipt of the change order."

Construction will begin within the next 30 days and Aug. 1 is the anticipated date of completion.