Thoughts On Question 2

Yes, our facilities have roofing needs that need to be addressed in the near term.  If elected, this will be a priority of mine with or without passage of the 2011 bond proposal on the ballot.   I don't enjoy having my daughters come home after working out and tell me the weight room leaks any more than anyone else.  It is hard to understand how the leaking issues have continued with the 2004 Capital Projects Levy still in place.

Consider for a moment, roofing the district's facilities makes up 15.3% of the Question 2 hard dollars from Line 488 of the KA estimate dated 7/13/2011.  [2,725,928/17,786,259]  Next, add 31% for inflation contingency & soft costs to bring the total cost estimate to roof the district's facilities to $3,570,965.  [1.31 x 2,725,928]  Inflation contingency and soft costs are effectively increasing the cost to roof the district's facilities by $845,037.  Keep in mind, KA's profit margin is already factored into the original $2,725,928.

A 6% inflation contingency [line 415] tacked onto this portion [roofing] of the estimate??  Wouldn't the work start ASAP/weather permitting spring 2012?  Assuming the work will start in April 2012, and the estimate was done in July of 2011, this is assuming an annualized inflation rate of 8%.

25% tacked onto roofing the district's facilities for soft costs [line 417]?  What are soft costs?  I have been trying to get a detailed answer to that question from the district.  I was supplied with this list:

Architectural Fees for Remodel (different than new) 5.5 to 7%

Mechanical and Electrical – 2 to 3% (pending scope)

Permits – 1%

Testing – 1%

Misc Survey – 1% (varies on area)

Bond – (in today public bid economy) 1%

Misc Owner costs (Staff and misc needs during the project can be charged to a project if district chooses) – 2%

Legal Fees – .5%

Insurances - .5% (depends on your policy in place)

Commissioning per the State of MN – 1 %

Plan Reproduction/advertising for Competitive bidding – .5%

Design Contingency – 5% (highly recommend for remodel)

Construction Contingency – 5% (highly recommend for remodel)

Someone needs to explain to me how some of these costs above can be extrapolated across "roofing" in addition to margin?  Here is one answer I received when attempting to get detailed information on this topic:

"The facilities committee spent several meetings on the topic of what the appropriate soft cost percentage should be.  At these meetings questions were asked, details were given, and other school district comparisons were used."

Why do we need a middle man + 31% on a roofing project that is such a large portion of the total package?  Keep in mind we are financing 100% of the costs of this project.  I know an excellent private roofing company in the metro that does industrial/commercial roofing worldwide.  What are the chances they can do this for a lot less?  Even if we could save $100,000??