West Geauga board authorizes RFQ for criteria engineer on water well and treatment/maintenance facility

The West Geauga Local School District Board of Education on a roll-call vote authorized the superintendent, treasurer and the director of instructional technology and operations to issue a request for qualifications (RFQ) to hire a criteria engineer to refine scope and cost estimates for a proposed water well, treatment system and a possible combined maintenance facility.

The board’s action begins a two-step procurement process: the criteria engineer will evaluate three scenarios already developed by district staff and produce the scope documents that will be used to issue a later RFQ to hire a design-build contractor. The board’s authorization was framed as an early, protective step to reduce risk and to produce the technical specifications needed for competitive bidding.

Board and staff said project costs have risen as the project scope changed and because of new regulatory criteria. “Well, it's not necessarily a presentation. It's just kinda talking through the beginning of our stages when it comes to our water treatment,” said Mister Amcets, a staff member presenting the update. Staff noted initial budgetary estimates were around $1.8 million at one point but later assessments put the project “over $3 million” as the scope expanded to include additional trenching, electrical work and larger tanks after EPA involvement.

Another staff member described the RFQ for a criteria engineer as a brief step that “protects the board” by spot-checking current estimates and helping prepare the design-build bid package. The district intends the criteria-engineer step to take roughly two weeks and to produce more detailed cost comparisons among smaller and larger facility options.

District staff and board members discussed economies of scale if the water treatment work is combined with a new maintenance building, but said the combined option raises the overall price even as it may reduce per-square-foot costs compared with building separately at a later date. The board and staff repeatedly emphasized that the RFQ and the later design-build procurement would return to the board for formal approval at each stage.

The board’s authorization was recorded after discussion and a roll-call vote approving Resolution 145, which begins the RFQ process for a criteria engineer. The motion and second were made on the floor; the vote was recorded with the following members voting yes: Doctor Beers; Missus Claypool; Missus Sherwood (other votes were called but not listed individually in the record).