The Atlantic School District’s Board of Education, Wednesday evening, awarded a contract for the construction of the Washington Elementary parking lot project. The parking lot will include 95-marked stalls and room for seven additional unmarked spaces.

Snyder and Associates Engineer Dave Sturm said bids for the project were opened at 2-p.m. Wednesday. There were five contractors bidding for the project which was estimated by Snyders to cost a little more than $444,000. The Board had earlier decided they would accept the lowest bid. The low bid of $418,731.70 was received by Precision Concrete Services of Atlantic.

Other bids came from: Carley Construction ($444, 280.10); United Construction Services of Atlantic ($462,625.25); Henningsen Construction, Inc., of Atlantic ($466,039.88), and Absolute Concrete from Slater, IA ($499,346.30).

Sturm said two of the sub-contractors for PCS are Berg Electric, for the lighting, and Stamp Construction, for the demolition work and grading. Both companies are based in Atlantic, so Sturm said “We have a local contract here all around.” The project includes a seven-inch thick, Portland Cement Concrete pavement. The deadline for “substantial” project completion is August 16th. That means it must be open for use by that date. Failure to meet the deadline will mean $2,500 per day fine in liquidated damages for the contractor.

In other business, the Atlantic School Board approved additional contract recommendations following those we’ve previously announced. The latest includes: Jenny Madsen – Extended School Year; Julie Phippen – Summer Vocational Rehab, and Mallory Kirchhoff – Summer School Paraeducator.

And, the Board approved an increase of 2% for FY 2019-20 principals’ salaries, which includes FICA and IPERS.