Company to design Parkview, Readfield upgrades
By Scott Bellile
A Green Bay architecture firm will provide design services to the School District of New London for referendum-funded projects.
The New London School Board on Jan. 14 voted 5-0 to approve a contract with Somerville Inc. to plan upgrades to the district’s buildings and internal systems. School board members Connie Neely and Kim Schroeder were absent and did not vote.
Somerville Inc. will first design referendum projects at Parkview and Readfield elementary schools that could begin next year.
According to a draft contract for the work at Parkview, proposed projects there include an addition containing a flex room, a collaboration room and possible restrooms.
The restrooms may otherwise be built by renovating existing building space if they are not part of the addition.
Other facilities projects at Parkview could include electrical distribution updates, lighting and ceiling replacement, HVAC system updates, air handling unit replacement, boiler replacement and window replacement.
The school district did not provide a draft contract for Readfield, but similar facilities updates are planned there minus an addition.
Although the contract states Somerville is offering architectural services, school board President Terry Wegner said the firm is essentially providing the district engineering services. The only building construction planned during the next 10 years will be the Parkview addition, he noted.
Somerville plans to spend 2019 designing the referendum projects. Private contractors will bid on the projects early next year and then break ground in summer 2020.
“We feel certainly to do justice to the projects that we would be rushing and would not be in a good decision to try and get construction work done for this summer,” Melanie Parma, senior architectural designer for Somerville, told the school board.
Joe Marquardt, business services director for the school district, explained why he recommended hiring Somerville over three other firms that submitted requests for proposal last fall.
“[Somerville] provided us detailed information and the best forward-thinking procedures to ensure short-term and long-term solutions are accounted for in the building and internal system upgrades,” Marquardt said. “As we’ve always shared, it’s very important to do projects correctly, not just what is the best solution for today, but what really is the best solution for the long run.”
Another benefit to Somerville is it employs in-house mechanical, electrical and plumbing professionals who can work closely with the firm’s architects, Marquardt said.
That collaboration will allow the company to offer solutions more quickly than if the district had to consult outside companies for those specific services, Marquardt said.
Somerville will also review its work 11 months after a project is completed to ensure the upgrades function properly, Marquardt said.
Although district residents will not see their referendum dollars put to work at Parkview and Readfield until 2020, the school district already has one referendum-funded project planned for this coming summer.
The school board last month approved a $626,850 roof replacement project at Lincoln Elementary School. It will be funded in part by the referendum.
School District of New London residents passed the 10-year, $1.3 million-per-year referendum by a 61 percent vote last November.