Edmonson County board conditionally accepts Kyrock Elementary bids, approves project form

The Edmonson County Board of Education voted July 28 to move forward with the Kyrock Elementary School replacement project, conditionally accepting bids and filing the required BG-1 with the Kentucky Department of Education. The action matters because the board tied final acceptance of the prime contractor to a local nickel tax levy and to the absence of a successful recall petition, meaning the project's progress depends on local tax action and potential citizen challenge. At a special meeting in Brownsville, Chair Alex Ulm and other board members voted on a set of motions presented by Alliance Corporation; Ryan Martin of Alliance presented the bid package. A motion by Alex Ulm, seconded by Mark Rich, approved acceptance of the submitted bids for Kyrock Elementary replacement. The minutes record the motion as approved; the minutes also contain contradictory lines about an individual member's vote (see clarifying details). In a related motion under KRS Chapter 45A, the board voted to conditionally accept the bid of Alliance Corporation and to reject alternate bids. That conditional acceptance was explicitly tied to the board’s subsequent levy of a nickel tax and to there being no successful recall petition against that tax. The motion was made by Ulm and seconded by Rich. The board separately rejected the masonry bid submitted by Olympic Construction, LLC, after input from the construction manager and the architect. The rejection motion, made by Paul Forester and seconded by Melinda Campbell, cites KRS 45A.395 and finds the bidder non-responsible based on the construction manager’s and architect’s advice. The minutes record that rejection as unanimously approved. The board also approved the BG-1 form for the Kyrock Elementary replacement as filed with the Kentucky Department of Education; that motion was made by Ulm and seconded by Forester and is recorded as unanimously approved. Discussion and next steps focused on the tax dependency and on procurement compliance. The board’s conditional acceptance means the district will proceed with design and regulatory filings but that construction and contract execution are contingent on the local tax levy taking effect and not being successfully recalled. No dollar amount for the Kyrock replacement was listed in the minutes. The board recorded the construction manager’s and architect’s recommendation to reject a specific masonry bid, but the construction manager and the architect were not named in the public minutes. The board took the Kyrock actions after presentation by Alliance Corporation; Superintendent Brian Alexander presided over the meeting. If the county levies the nickel tax and no recall succeeds, the district will move toward contract execution and construction; otherwise, the conditional acceptance could not be finalized.