More Renovation Work Approved for Tanglewood

By Dave Freneaux

The Central Community School Board had a called meeting on Friday, June 18th, to consider unanticipated roof repairs to Tangelwood Elementary School.  During the renovation process a problem was identified.  The roof decking on all of the buildings at Tanglewood Elementary cosists of a decking with waterproof roofing materials laid over the decking.  The original renovation project called for the replacement of the roofing materials, but not the decking.  Superintendent Faulk explains that from the inside of the building the decking appears to be in good condition.  However, once the roofing material was stripped away, it became apparent that corrosion had weakend the decking to the point that it would be unwise to proceed without addressing that issue.  Inspection of the entire facility revealed that approximately one third of the roof decking was in good shape and did not need to be replaced.  School Board member Will Easley visited the school on Thursday afternoon and on Friday morning to personally inspect the decking material in question and found that the work was, in his opinion, warranted. 
 
During the meeting School Board attorney Sheri Morris reminded the Board that in order to qualify as a Change Order the additional work had to be within the scope of work of the original bid.  A representative of the engineering firm Coleman Partners explained to the Board's satisfaction that the decking is an integral part of the roofing which was intended to be replaced, and though the additional expense was unexpected, it does fall within the original scope of work for the project.  When issuing a change order, and especially one of this magnitude, it is the obligation of the engineers and architects to determine whether the costs reported by the contractor are reasonable, since there is no public bid process involved.  Mr. Faulk states that the estimate by the engineers of the fair market value of this work was actually higher than the price proposed by the General Contractor.  The four School Board members in attendance voted unanimously to approve the Change Order.