Ashkar Elementary school construction plan gets approval with conditions
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The Ashkar Elementary building project can move forward following approval with conditions of the revised plans by the Lycoming County Planning Commission at their monthly meeting.
The project includes the construction of a new addition and the partial demolition and comprehensive renovations of the current building.
The project had been put out to bid earlier this year, but bids came in well over-budget, so the architects and the district administration worked at getting the costs of construction down from the $44 million of the original bids. The updated costs total $37 million, which is still above what had been originally estimated and what the district has available for the project.
To decrease costs, the actual square footage of the addition was shrunk down, according to the report from the Planning Commission and the construction of a gymnasium has been taken off the table for now.
One condition that has not been met, from a previous approval of the original plan, was that there has not been a zoning permit issued from Codes Inspection Inc., it was reported at the meeting. There also needs to be a deed recorded for the lot consolidation related to the project.
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the county, by Hughesville Borough, Wolf township and the East Lycoming School District because the Ashkar property is located in two municipalities.
According to the commission's report, Wolf Township had jurisdiction on the lot consolidation and the county had jurisdiction on the land development approval and the stormwater review.
During the meeting, Dan Vassallo, of Vassallo Engineering and Surveying, expressed frustration that his assessment of what needed to be done to comply with the stormwater ordinance does not match what the review engineer is asking for.
"The issue is whether I have to have any slope in the pipes which I said we don't need to have and they're saying you need to but there's nothing in the ordinance that says I have to," Vassallo said.
Solicitor for the commission, J. Mike Wiley, addressed the issue.
"In the grand scheme of things...they're required to submit a plan that meets the ordinance, we hire an engineer to confirm that. While I appreciate Mr. Vassallo's frustration over the process, ultimately, our review engineer has to sign off on it, so that we know that what should be done for the ordinance has been done. Then Mr. Vassallo's obligation is once it's built to provide a set of plans under seal that says it was built that way, and unless we decide to have another engineering firm review it for some reason, I think that's what we're stuck with," Wiley said.
"I'm not in any way challenging Mr. Vassallo's expression of frustration, and he was very articulate in his presentation, as he always is. But ultimately, I think our question is, does it meet the ordinance? And the person who can answer that for us is our review engineer. And if Mr. Vassallo is able to convince the review engineer that he's right, and the review engineer needs to look at it a different way, then that's fine. Because ultimately, we'll accept what the review engineer says it's okay. But I don't know," Wiley said.
"Ultimately, my advice to the commission would be not to go against what the review engineer is saying. Because that then puts us in a spot where the professional you retain, to confirm it meets the ordinance is not being followed," he added.
The commission did approve the resubmitted plan for the construction project with the caveat that the new conditions be met.
Following approval, Vassallo offered additional information about the project. He noted that the pre-bid meeting will be Sept. 12 for the new design of the building. By the end of next month, the district's school board will make the decision whether to go forward with the project, Vassallo said.
"Hopefully it comes in less or they're going to go back to the drawing board or they'll do something," Vassallo said.
"I do know that the funds that have been allocated only last for a certain amount of time. So they're under the gun for that too, to get things going. So like I said, the bid came in June. And we spent these last two, three months redesigning it to try to lower the cost," he added.