School contractor hiring is delayed

The Sisters School District has to hold off hiring a Construction Manager/General Contractor (CM/GC) for the new high school project due to a procedural glitch.

The district had received eight bids for the position as of Monday, January 7, but had to reject the bids because the meeting at which they decided to pursue the alternative contracting method for the new Sisters High School was not advertised in a statewide publication as required by law.

The school board decided on January 7 to schedule a new meeting with statewide notice, delaying the hiring process by approximately 15 days from that date.

The question of notice is a small legal technicality, but it could have opened the district to challenges regarding the legality of the bid process.

The CM/GC method brings a contractor on board early in the design process to act as a project manager and consultant on the design. The district believes a CM/GC will save money on the project by suggesting alternative construction methods and materials.

According to school district construction projects manager Bob Martin, seven bids came in from construction firms in the Willamette Valley and Kirby Nagelhout Construction was the only Central Oregon builder to submit a bid.

Nagelhout recently completed repairs on the current Sisters High School and he was involved in the construction of that facility.