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MILL HALL -- A groundbreaking ceremony has been set for the Liberty Curtin Elementary School project.
Keystone Central School District Superintendent Dr. Jacquelyn Martin provided an update to the board of directors Thursday regarding various aspects of the project.
"We are planning a Liberty Curtin groundbreaking, scheduled for Jan. 10 at 1:30 p.m. at the Liberty Curtin site," Martin told the board. "All board members are invited to attend and will be receiving more info."
Martin said she expects faculty, staff and the administration from the school to be at the event as well with "smiles on, ready to put shovels in the ground."
"This is an exciting milestone," she said. "This has been four years of planning to get to this point."
Martin said, since the facilities committee has not met between the board's November meeting and Thursday night, she wanted to offer a progress update surrounding the multi-million dollar project.
"At the last meeting, we had authorized our bonds council to secure the first of two $9.9 million bonds for the project," Martin said.
She told the board she and Business Manager Joni MacIntyre met with bond council and, on Nov. 28, were able to lock into an interest rate between 3.5 percent and 4.375 percent.
"Prior to that they had been significantly higher," she said. "So we were really pleased with the rate we were able to secure."
Martin said the interest rate cost is projected to be $716,000 lower than previously projected.
Martin said she and MacIntyre have also been working with Crabtree Rohrbaugh & Assoc. to cut the project’s soft costs down.
"Joni and I spent over an hour yesterday with the architect just combing through the soft costs from the original estimate," she said. "We've been able to get some of those numbers down, too."
Martin noted some of the soft costs were only estimates and actuals are coming through from site development.
"So several things came in lower than expected and, again, we're trying to get those costs down and eliminate anything that's not absolutely necessary or required by code that wouldn't put us at a disadvantage," she said.
That last big move the board made in cementing the Liberty Curtin project came in November, when it approved three construction bids that included:
-- Lobar, Inc., of Dillsburg, Pa., for $13,211,600 for general construction of the new Liberty Curtin building.
-- Hosler Corp., of Berwick, Pa., for $2,898,300 for mechanical construction of the building.
-- Hallstrome-Clark Electric, Inc., of Dubois, Pa., for $2,670,700 for electrical construction of the building.
The costs would be paid for using a combination of two series of long-term financing combined with cash from the General Fund Balance 10.
The board also rejected and rebid the cost for plumbing construction after a lone bid came in at 148 percent over budget.
The board's next meeting, a work session, will be held on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024, at 6:30 p.m., in the Administration Office Board Room, 86 Administration Drive, Mill Hall.