Seven firms submit proposals to study Norwich schools
Norwich — The city received seven proposals Thursday with widely ranging fees, from firms interested in doing an extensive study of the city's school buildings, their condition and possible future restructuring or consolidation.
The School Facilities Review Committee is scheduled to meet at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at Kelly Middle School to begin reviewing the proposals.
The committee was formed in spring to launch an extensive study of the city school system for possible long-term changes to save money and potentially consolidate buildings.
The system has 15 buildings, including the central office on Town Street and the former Mohegan Park Environmental Education Program building, now just used for storage and assembly of science kits.
Seven firms, five from Connecticut and two from Rhode Island, submitted proposals by Thursday's deadline, but one firm, Greg Smolley LLB Architects of Pawtucket, R.I., did not include a fee schedule beyond hourly rates, city Purchasing Agent William Hathaway said.
The bid request asked for proposals for two categories of work.
The first part would be a “needs assessment report on existing conditions and recommend options for improvements to Norwich Public Schools facilities.”
The second portion would be to assist city and school officials in presenting and explaining proposed plans to the public prior to an anticipated November 2016 referendum.
The lowest-priced proposals were submitted by CJ Lawler Associates LLC of West Hartford and Quisenberry Arcari Architects LLC of Farmington.
Lawler has worked on several city school projects for the past 30 years, including recently the $40 million renovation of Kelly Middle School, an asbestos abatement project at Wequonnoc School, a roof replacement project in the 1980s and the Teachers' Memorial School library renovations after it was gutted by fire on Nov. 5, 2002.
Lawler proposed spending about 300 to 350 hours studying the schools at a fee ranging from $40,000 to $45,000.
The firm would devote about 40 hours to the pre-referendum presentations at an additional cost of $10,000 to $12,000.
Quisenberry proposed spending 656 hours on the school study at a fee ranging from $35,000 to $55,760, and another 88 hours on the pre-referendum presentations for another $880 to $7,480.
The apparent high bid was submitted by the Capital Region Education Council of Hartford, proposing to spend 1,473 hours on the study with a fee ranging from $210,651 to $235,761, and another 150 hours on the pre-referendum work with a fee range of $17,500 to $22,500.
c.bessette@theday.com
Twitter: @Bessettetheday
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