Page 2/The Sun and News, Saturday, April 24, 2021TK board approves bids for learning center construction
Greg Chandler
Staff Writer
Ground soon will be bro-
ken on the new Thornapple
Kellogg Schools Learning
Center, and the new facility
will be larger than expected.
The TK Board of
Education Monday voted to
authorize construction man-
ager Owen-Ames-Kimball to
issue letters of intent to con-
tractors and suppliers in
more than 25 categories.
Including allowances and a
10 percent contingency, the
total cost of the new school is
expected to be nearly $10.
million. While that amount is
about $373,000 higher than
budgeted, items have been
added to the building that
were not in the original
building footprint.
“We added the profes-
sional development and
board area, and we also
increased our storage area off
from the cafeteria,” TK
Assistant Superintendent
Craig McCarthy told board
members. “We’ve added a
little over 5,000 square feet
to the building, but our over-
all price didn’t go up more
than you would expect.”
Construction of the new
32,575-square-foot building
on Bender Road was made
possible by voter approval of
a $42.8 million bond issue in
November 2019.
The new school will have
10 age-appropriate class-
rooms and a sensory room.
Each classroom will have a
restroom and an adjacent
mudroom for storage.
McCarthy said there was
good participation in the
request for bids from inter-
ested contractors.
“Every one of the bid
groups had multiple bidders,
with the exception of land-
scaping and our playground
areas,” McCarthy said. “The
rest of the areas probably had
a minimum of four bidders,
which ended up giving us
some very good pricing.”
Bob Byrne of Owen-Ames-Kimball said bids in
most categories came in
under budget, and the bid
amounts in nearly every cat-
egory were close together.
“That means everybody
was on the same page with
the documents and the bid-
ding, per scope, per plans,
per specs. We didn’t have a
lot of variance in our num-
bers,” Byrne said.
OAK already has had
post-bid meetings with the
low bidders, Byrne said.
“I have confidence that
everybody that is recom-
mended for this package
[are] both really good con-
tractors and their numbers
are qualified,” he said.
Low bidders for some of
the largest contracts to be
awarded included:
Mechanical/plumbing:
DHE Plumbing &
Mechanical, of Kalamazoo,
$1.26 million.
Masonry: Roossien
Masonry, of Grandville,
$987,000.Earthwork: Excel
Excavation, of Caledonia,
$885,000.
Electrical: Parkway
Electric and
Communications, of
Holland, $618,300.
General Trades: BCI
Construction, of Grand
Rapids, $582,420.
Concrete: Lucas
Concrete, of Walker,
$571,961.
Metals: Structural
Standards, of Sparta,
$494,200.
The learning center will
serve 3- and 4-year-old pre-school programs, the Great
Start Readiness Program,
early childhood special edu-
cation and child care. It will
replace the current learning
center, which was built in
1938 as part of what was
then the high school. The
current building will be torn
down to make way for more
parking and better traffic
flow around nearby McFall
Elementary School.
A May 6 groundbreaking
is scheduled, with the learn-
ing center expected to be
open in time for the 2022-
school year.In other business
Monday, the board approved
the purchase of furniture for
the district’s three elementa-
ry buildings, all of which are
being expanded. The district
will spend no more than
$192,707, including 5 per-
cent contingency, for the fur-
niture. Contracts were
awarded to the following
companies: Custer Inc. for
$69,096, Holland Desk &
Chair for $66,703, Great
Lakes Furniture Supply for
$42,120 and Wenger
Corporation for $5,611.Retroactive raise, lump-sum payment approved for Caledonia village employees
Greg Chandler
Staff Writer
Village employees in
Caledonia who did not
receive a pay raise last year
because of financial con-
cerns tied to the COVID-
pandemic will be getting a
retroactive raise and a lump-
sum payment.
The village council
Monday voted to authorize a
2.5 percent pay increase for
Village Manager Jeff
Thornton and four other
employees, including a
$5,000 increase spelled out
in Thornton’s contract, retro-
active to the first pay period
of the 2020-21 fiscal year.
The council also
approved a one-time pay-
ment, based on that 2.5 per-
cent raise, for hours worked
between March 23, 2020 and
March 23 of this year, “as a
discretionary bonus for over-
coming a challenging and
stressful situation,” Thornton
said.
“I feel that our staff
deserve that,” said Council
Trustee Gerrianne Schuler,
who made the motion in sup-
port of the one-time pay-
ment.
The total lump-sum pay-
ment for the village employ-
ees for the retroactive pay
raise added up to more than
$5,800, Thornton said.
The council tabled for
further discussion in the
finance committee a third
item that would boost
Thornton’s salary to nearly
$95,000 for taking on the
responsibilities of the depart-
ment of public works.
“Back last year, we were
working on the budget, and
the question came up about
employee compensation,
employee raises,” Thornton
said. “At that time, with
COVID coming around,
there was a big scare of how
things were going to go. We
were hearing property values
were going to go down. We
heard a lot of nasty things
that were going to happen
with property values and rev-
enues for cities, villages andcounties. At that time, with
my recommendation, the
council did not issue any
raises to anybody last year
under the budgetary pro-
cess.”
Thornton also wanted to
recognize village staff for
continuing to work at the
office and at DPW when
other municipalities were
having their employees work
remotely.
“Because we’re so small,
our staff worked – and are
still working – in the job site
under the stress of COVID,”
he said. “I’ve spoken to sev-
eral of our council people,
and the consensus was we
need to do something – we
should do something for our
employees that came here
and worked, and were out
dealing with keeping things
working around the village –
keeping the streets clean of
snow, moving snow, leaf
pickup, summer programs,
mowing the lawns if we
didn’t have people mowing
the lawns.”Less certain was trying to
resolve the situation at the
department of public works.
The department has had one
full-time employee since for-
mer DPW Director Roger
Loring retired in June 2020.
Thornton requested the addi-
tion of a second full-time
employee.
“We really need a skilled
person over there to be able
to do repairs on chainsaws
and power washers, simple
maintenance on vehicles,” he
said.
Village President Jennifer
Lindsey agreed on the need
for another DPW employee.
“I think that is very much
needed, and I think it’s going
to take a lot off you,” Lindsey
said, referring to Thornton.
Thornton suggested a
starting wage of $18 an hour
for the new employee,
although Lindsey was open
to a higher wage, depending
on the village’s needs.
“We need to be competi-
tive to get the right person,”
she said.The council unanimously
approved creating the posi-
tion.
The ordinance calls for a
public service director who
would be appointed by the
village president with the
approval of the village coun-
cil. The finance committee
on April 15 discussed the
idea of Thornton taking on
the responsibilities of the
public service director rather
than going out and searching
for a director. Village
Treasurer Jennifer Renegar
reviewed salaries for similar
public service director posi-
tions and found a range of
$46,000-$80,000.
When Thornton was
hired as village manager in
2019, he began with a salary
of $65,000, with a provision
in his contract that the salary
would increase to $70,
“after one year of expected
performance.” Thornton did
not take that increase last
year, and the increase would
be covered under the retroac-
tive pay raise.“I didn’t feel it was right
to enforce that contractual
amount when the employees
weren’t getting a raise,” he
said.
Thornton proposed tak-
ing half of the minimum pay
range from Renegar’s review
and adding that to his salary
for taking over responsibility
for DPW.
“We just took the posi-
tion we last had at the DPW
and split it down the middle,
took half of that and added it
to my salary ... When you
look at the numbers if we
went out to fill the position, I
think it’s [more] economical
than going out and getting
somebody off the street for
that position,” he said.
Trustee Dan Erskine
moved to have that proposal
tabled for further discussion.
The finance committee met
later in the week to discuss
the issue, but no decisions
were made, Lindsey said.Chicken dinner is Rotary’s
first fundraiser in months
Fifteen volunteers from
the Middleville Rotary Club
worked fervently to serve hot
chicken dinners April 16,
bringing in about $1,500 for
the service club.
The dinner, which was
the club’s first fundraiser in
more than a year, was
organized by Eric Schaefer
and Lil Stehr. The meals,
which had been pre-ordered
and were picked up that
evening, included half of a
rotisserie-baked chicken,
baked potato, green beans,
roll, cookie and condiments
for $10.
“We got loads of
compliments,” club member
Bob Williams wrote in
follow-up correspondence.
“Phone calls came in from
friends and relatives who had
picked up their dinners, took
them home, [ate them] and
were delighted.”
Williams said the club
tried something new,
adapting to restrictions
created by the COVID-
pandemic, and it seemed to
be more successful than the
club’s regular spaghetti
suppers.
He predicted it was “one
of our most successful events
in the past few years.”
Even so, it was taxing.
“I came home last nightexhausted,” he wrote. “... I
learned a new appreciation
for what all the restaurant
staffs are doing — every
day.”
Dann Tobin tried to keep
up with the numbers of meals
being handed out and to
whom. But the fast-paced
delivery system that
developed left no time forcareful records, Williams
said.
The club uses funds like
those raised by the dinner to
provide college scholarships,
Imagination Library book
distribution for preschoolers,
food pantry, Christmas
luncheon for Lincoln
Meadows residents and
more.Vinal Tabor, (from left) Don Williamson and Richard
Frye halve chickens, which had been cooked on a rotis-
serie. (Photos by Bob Williams)