A pair of projects from the 2022 school maintenance bond are moving forward after approval by the Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor last month.
Blazy Construction, of Soldotna, will be paid around $2.5 million to install siding on half of Soldotna High School. H Construction, of Palmer, will be paid around $538,000 to replace the roof at Hope School. Authorizing memorandums were signed by Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Peter Micciche on March 13 and included in the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly’s Tuesday meeting packet.
Borough Purchasing & Contracting Director John Hedges said during the meeting that the Soldotna project has been reduced from its original scope.
Where originally the siding was set to be repaired on the whole of SoHi’s exterior, it was reduced to “approximately ½” of the buildings facade, per the memo. That’s among a variety of modifications to the original bond package made as construction costs ballooned in the years since the bond was first approved.
Per previous Clarion reporting, the northwest face of the school has cracked in the decades since it was constructed, letting in water that is inflicting structural damage. The original projected cost of replacing the siding on the full building was reported to be $2 million in October 2022. The borough will pay closer to $3 million in funds from the bond to do half the work.
“It’s smaller than what we originally set out to do, but its targeting the most critical areas of the facility,” Hedges said.
The Hope School roof repair was among a few Kenai Peninsula school roofs targeted in the bond. Hedges said that Hope’s roof is “a simpler fix” than others at Mountain View Elementary and Nikiski North Star Elementary, which haven’t moved forward yet. The contract also came in lower than the borough projected, Hedges said.
A full recording of the meeting can be found at kpb.legistar.com.
Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.
