The Great Bend USD 428 Board of Education had a special meeting Tuesday and approved spending up to $500,000 to pave the parking lot around the future Support Services Building at 625 East 10th St.
The district purchased the former Central Power Systems site in December of 2021 for $1,550,000, with plans to remodel it to house maintenance, transportation, custodial and grounds services, and Food Services, including the Central Kitchen. It is now called the Support Services Building and the administrators hope to move Food Services into the building this summer.
Assistant Superintendent John Popp said Tuesday that paving was part of the original plan when the building was purchased but it decided that could be deferred to save money. With all of the work going on at the site and after recent rains, it became apparent that the dirt and asphalt around the building must be replaced.
Popp showed a diagram of where concrete is needed on the north side of the building, which faces 10th Street, and part of the east and west sides. The rest of the area on the sides and behind the building could have a geogrid base covered with asphalt millings.
“I know the first question you’re going to ask is can we afford this,” Popp said. The answer was yes; the money will come out of the district’s Capital Outlay fund. He added he believes that approving the change would be in the district’s best interest.
“If the specific bids come in a little bit under that $500,000 mark, that money could be returned to the district or it could be used in another contingency if there are any other things that we need to finish the project,” Popp said.
Superintendent Khris Thexton said administrators originally thought the present surface would suffice but a lot of heavy equipment has been coming to the site and the asphalt already there has been “pulverized.” In the future, school buses will be entering the site on one side and there will be a staff parking lot on the other.
“We knew coming into a project like this we’d have additional (costs),” Thexton added.
School board member Lori Reneau said she was concerned about the area that is going to have asphalt, which is where deliveries for the kitchen will be made. “Doesn’t it need to be concrete, too?”
“Eventually, we’ll probably go to concrete but we figured to keep the costs down for the time being,” Thexton said.
Popp said the geogrid that will be placed under the asphalt millings is expected to provide a good base. If the asphalt is later removed, concrete can be poured over that base.
The project will be put out for bids by the Construction Manager, McCown-Gordon.
Popp said a timeline has not be set but, “I don’t believe it will slow down our actually getting into the building.”
