Board approves demolition, BLER replacement bids and a change order cutting pilings at Bayou Blue Elementary

The Lef Parish School Board approved several land and facilities items during its Nov. 19 meeting, including construction change orders, bid awards and a lease amendment.

The board accepted a low bid from HFL Demolition LLC for the Bayou Blue Elementary building 500 demolition project (transcript lists a base bid of $92,000 and a design fee of $11,543; a computation error in the transcript listed the total as $13,543 — arithmetic indicates a total of $103,543 and the article records the corrected sum). The board also rejected a nonconforming low bid from Gotti Construction and awarded the 2025 BLER replacement project to Dove Group LLC with a base bid of $410,000 and a design fee of $44,848 for a total of $454,848.

The board amended a land lease with Edie White Catholic High School to permit construction of a javelin runway and throwing area, with all costs, maintenance and liability to the lessee. The board also approved selling hunting and fishing privileges on a described parcel (location details as read in the meeting were garbled in the transcript). Finally, the board approved a credit change order of $16,762 that reduces pilings for the Bayou Blue Elementary new school project from 55 ft to 50 ft, citing unexpectedly favorable geotechnical test results and the need to keep construction on schedule.

Board members characterized several items as time‑sensitive, moved them by motion and carried them by voice votes after standard procurement discussion; no formal protests or public objections were recorded in the meeting minutes.