By Talaina Kor The Navajo County Community College Governing Board convened Tuesday, July 20, and discussed the White Mountain Campus Skill Center construction project with new NPC President Dr. Chato Hazelbaker in attendance. Associate Vice President, Chief Business Officer Maderia Ellison presented to the board, stating that in October of 2018 the Board had set aside $20 million from accumulated savings to cover construction of new facilities at the White Mountain Campus in Show Low. Since then the architects, SPS+ Architects, have updated the Master Facilities Plan for Show Low and other locations. “In May of 2020 they also stepped up and prepared the estimates for the design of the skills center. So, we are now at a point where we can move forward with the construction,” stated Ellison. The 28,820 square foot facility will house instructional programs for welding automotive and EIT (engineer in training) programs, and space for the maintenance department. The initial estimate to construct the skills center, including the design fee, was $7.7 million for a building size of 26,500 square feet, but has now increased to $11.7 million, due to increased cost of materials and the addition of approximately 2,300 square feet. “This is much more expensive than we hoped it would be a year ago,” said Ellison, “The pandemic has certainly created a lot of havoc in the supply chain.” According to Ellison, many markets had low inventories before the start of the pandemic, other markets were not able to keep up production during the pandemic due to shortages in labor and raw materials, and the increase in material costs related to tariffs. Prices are also believed to increase even more in the future. Ellison also added that a significant amount of time was spent gaining input from students, faculty, staff and the community to help develop the actual design. The committee, made up of the director of facilities, the construction manager and architects, evaluated the proposals in accordance with the defined criteria set forth in the invitation for bid including the value, scope, complexity and the nature of the project. Committee member David Huish, with maintenance facilities, stated he and Construction Manager Richard Strickland worked with the architects to analyze every bid. “If there was any dollar amount that seemed to stick out in the bids, we would send back to the bidders and ask for more information to explain how they came up with the numbers,” stated Huish. The formal bidding process included the receipt of six bids on June 18, 2021. With the low base bid of $11,727,000 from TSG Constructors, LLC, which the committee determined to be complete and review of the firm is positive. One alternate was included in the bid documents. TSG Constructor’s price for the alternate totaled $250,000 resulting in a total bid of $11,977,000. The alternate will result in improved usage of space in the building and function and operation of the facility. After a review of the bids, board approved awarding the bid to TSG Constructors. In other business, the board: * Approved the 2021-22 Dual Enrollment Intergovernmental Agreement between Navajo County Community College District and Hopi Junior/Senior High School staff to purchase annual Microsoft License and Assurance for $134,153 over three years. * Approved the 2021-22 TALON Agreement amendment between Navajo County Community College District and Dishchii’bikoh Community School. * Approved the purchase of annual support and maintenance from Jenzabar Inc. for $269,500 for 2021-22. * Approved a request to renew the annual contract with Microsoft License and Assurance for up to three further years.
