The estimated cost to build a second pair of K-8 schools in the Battle Ground School District has dropped by about $3.5 million.
Officials attribute the reduced costs to lower than expected bids and a savings on architectural fees.
The cost to build the “second” K-8 schools is now estimated at $28.1 million, down from the $31.6 million estimated last spring.
The construction cost for the “second” K-8 schools is even less than the cost to construct the first pair of K-8 schools called “Daybreak” schools. Work on the “second” K-8 schools started about a year after the Daybreak schools.
These construction costs do not include land acquisition.
While the state’s share of the construction cost of the “second” K-8 schools remains at $16.2 million, the local share has declined from $15.4 million to about $11.9 million in the latest reports available.
Russ Kaufman, who works for Heery International Inc. and performs financial work and project management of the construction projects for the Battle Ground School District, said some of the construction projects included in the March 2005, voter-approved bond have increased in cost, and some, such as the “second” K-8 schools, have declined.
The net result, he said, is a non-committed reserve of about $2.6 million which is not presently budgeted for any of the projects.
“We got great bids,” said Kaufman of the second K-8 cost reduction.
Kaufman said officials had expected the second K-8 schools to cost more than Daybreak. A different contractor won the second K-8 construction bid even though Todd Construction, the company that built the Daybreak schools, bid on the second pair of schools. Bids on the second K-8 schools came in about $2 million less than expected, said Kaufman.
Kaufman said the project cost changes and uncommitted funds were discussed with the school board in June 2007.
Using the proceeds from a $62.9 million bond, the school district built the two Daybreak schools in northwest Battle Ground at the corner of NW 20th Ave. and NE 239th St., at a cost of about $28.6 million, about 54 percent of which was paid by the state.
The two new schools opened in fall 2007.
A contract for construction of the second K-8 schools was awarded in April 2007 and work is underway at a location east of Battle Ground on NE 167th Ave.
The March 2005 bond also provided funds for several other construction projects, including additions to Captain Strong Elementary, Laurin Middle School and Amboy Middle School, the replacement of Lewisville Middle School, and a new stage at Battle Ground High School.
District officials said money would be saved in architectural fees by building the “second” pair of schools identical to the Daybreak schools.
Kaufman said the “second” K-8 schools are “mirrors” of the Daybreak schools. Both pairs of schools have 123,211 square feet.
The actual savings in architectural fees was about $333,000, or about 19 percent. Kaufman said the savings was about what he would expect.
Ralph Willson of LSW Architects, P.C., the company that designed both the Daybreak and “second” K-8 schools, said the $1.3 million architectural fees budgeted for the “second” K-8 schools reflect the need to re-design some classrooms, deal with county instead of city code interpretations, handle the bidding process, assist in administering construction, and carry liability insurance on the design work.
Kaufman said the “mirror” decision required some architectural work and new drawings that would not otherwise have had to be done.
Willson declined to provide staff hours spent on the Daybreak schools or on the “second” K-8 campus.
Classrooms added
The district signed contracts with LSW Architects in November 2004 for the design of both the Daybreak and “second” K-8 schools. Had the bond failed in March 2005, the contracts contained escape clauses. The district could have canceled the design work at a cost of $250,000 for the Daybreak schools and $50,000 for the second K-8 pair.
When design work started, officials envisioned that both campuses would have about 101,000 square feet of space. However, an increase in state matching money resulted in the addition of six classrooms in the K-4 buildings and three classrooms in the 5-8 buildings at both campuses, plus the construction of a 7,410 square foot covered play area at each location.
The larger buildings increased basic architectural fees at the Daybreak schools by about $249,000.
Total architectural fees at the Daybreak schools were about $1.6 million, said Kaufman. Architectural fees are estimated at $1.28 million on the second K-8 schools.
Willson said the classrooms were added to the Daybreak design without moving exterior walls on the first floor. Rather, he said, exterior walls on the second floor were moved out to match the first floor.
The Daybreak schools went to bid in May 2006 and a bid was awarded in June 2006. The LSW contract for Daybreak was revised after the fact on May 31, 2006, to reflect the added classrooms and the design work already done.
The LSW contract for the second K-8 schools was revised in February 2007.
In addition to state matching money for construction of the school, the state matches architectural fees. For the second K-8 schools, the state will pay about $863,437 of the $1.3 million architectural costs.
Refund expected
Kaufman said the school district expects to receive rebates from the city of Battle Ground for sewer and traffic impact fees once some portable classrooms are taken out of service. Those rebates are expected to total $140,000, said Kaufman.
Bill Myers
staff reporter
Concrete posts, once guard posts that stood as silent sentinels along the sides of stretches of Highway 99, also known as Pacific Highway and NE 10th Ave., Ridgefield, will soon be fading memories of yesteryear.
The posts, commonly found along “the” major north-south route between Mexico and Canada through California, Oregon and Washington, will be replaced by guard rails.
When stretches of road were designated or constructed as part of Highway 99 in the late 1920s, workers implanted the concrete posts at intervals of four-to-six feet along the Highway to prevent vehicles from leaving the road and plunging down steep slopes or into creeks.
Clark County Public Works crews are removing the posts because they don’t measure up to current safety requirements. Public Works spokesperson Dennis Ryan said 32 post removal projects are slated between Vancouver and Woodland as part of a County capital facilities project. He said the projects are located between La Center and Woodland.
Ryan said several hundred posts will be removed, crushed and recycled. About 100 posts will be set aside for potential use where safety would not be an issue. He said salvaged posts, which are heavy, could not be offered to private citizens because of potential liability issues.
A rich history
Soon after the two-lane highway was completed, it became the major route through Washington between Portland and Seattle for both trucks and automobiles.
Few lodging facilities along the route were available in Clark County. Summit Grove Lodge, hacked out of forest timbers between La Center and Woodland, rented cabins and served meals to travelers. Notable guests included president Franklin Roosevelt, child movie star Shirley Temple and notorious killer John Dillinger.
“That was all before my time,” said Ridgefield senior citizen Doris Anderson. Anderson and her late husband, Glen, operated a dairy farm on the Highway east of Ridgefield.
Anderson said she and Glen moved to the property on the Highway (now known as NE 10th Ave.) in 1945. Anderson said traffic wasn’t very heavy along the roadway then, and her husband was able to drive his tractor on the Highway to reach sections of their farm. But the Highway, like all roads, could still be dangerous. She said a daughter of the folks who previously owned her property was killed in a traffic accident on the highway right in front of their home.
The Summit Grove Lodge was then owned by Bill Marshall and his wife, said Anderson. She said she would help the Andersons serve large crowds at the Lodge.
The Highway was a Greyhound bus route between Portland and Seattle. Anderson said she remembers flagging down Greyhound busses to get bus rides to Portland.
The annual Walk-and-Knock food drive is set for Sat., Dec. 1, throughout the communities of Clark County.
Paper grocery bags to be used in the food collection effort are included in most editions of this week’s issue of The Reflector, as well as in the Vancouver Columbian Newspaper.
Area residents are invited to fill the bags with non-perishable food items and canned goods, and place them on porches. Volunteers will collect the bags sometime during the day Dec. 1, beginning about 8:30 a.m. and continuing until finished.
Not all areas of Clark County will be visited by volunteers. Food drive organizers ask people who live in areas outside pick up boundaries to deliver food bags to collection locations.
Volunteers are needed at each location to assist in collecting bags of food.
Battle Ground
The Battle Ground Lions Club will collect bags of food within the city limits of Battle Ground, ending at Grace Ave. on the east, 244th St. or 239th St. on the north, and 199th St. on the south. The pick up area will extend to 72nd Ave. on the west. The Battle Ground area collection effort will be based at Fire District 11 at Dollars Corner where volunteers are invited to assemble at 8 a.m.
La Center
The La Center Lions will pick up bags of food within the city limits of La Center, including housing developments on hills and east past the Post Office. The La Center collection program will be based at the La Center Evangelical Free Church, 111 E 5th St., La Center.
L.R. Smith, who heads the La Center program, said a food drive at La Center schools will be held this week to involve people who live outside the city limits.
Hockinson
In the Hockinson area, Warren Rust said volunteers should arrive at Fire District 3 on NE 159th St. about 8 a.m.. Pick up boundaries in Hockinson extend from Risto Rd./209th St. on the north, to 119th St. on the south, and to SR 503 and Caples Rd. on the west, including the trailer court at Caples and 159th St. Volunteers will drive to the ends of roads on the east, said Rust.
Ridgefield
In the Ridgefield area, Missey Stuckey said the Ridgefield Lions, plus all available volunteers, will pick up bags of food to 179th St. on the south, 50th Ave. on the east, Lewis River on the north, and west to the Columbia River. Crews will pick up on the north side of NE 179th St. but not the south side, and to the west side of NE 50th Ave. but not the east side.
Volunteers are invited to arrived at Ridgefield High School about 8 a.m. to help with the pick up effort. Stuckey promises morning snacks plus a lunch of chili to all who volunteer.
Other areas
Those who live outside the food drive pick up areas are asked to deliver bags of food to one of several locations.
For example, the area south of 199th St. and north of 159th St., all south of Battle Ground, will not be served by volunteers. People living in that area could bring bags of food to Fire District 11 at Dollars Corner or other locations.
Stacey Walters, general chairman of the Walk-and-Knock food drive, said bags of food may be delivered to any Riverview Community Bank, any Les Schwab tire center, and any food bank, such as the North County Community Food Bank, located at N First St. at 3rd Ave.
In addition, bags of food may be delivered on Dec. 1, 8 a.m.-2 p.m, to the locations where the drive is based--Fire District 11 at Dollars Corner, Ridgefield High School, Fire District 3 in Hockinson, and Ridgefield High School.
Walters said the Walk-and-Knock food drive generated less food last year than the year before. All collected food is delivered to a warehouse at the Port of Vancouver, and then delivered to food banks in Clark County.
Alice Perry Linker
staff reporter
A representative of the diking district that protects Woodland-area farmland told the Woodland Chamber of Commerce Nov. 13 that an Army Corps of Engineers plan to move the Woodland dike could be dangerous.
Jim Donald of the Consolidated Diking and Improvement District said under the Corps plan, the 13-mile dike that protects the Woodland Bottoms from flooding would be moved away from its present location and rebuilt southwest of its location, converting 12 square miles of farmland into wetlands.
The project is part of a larger wetlands mitigation effort that goes hand-in-hand with the project to dredge the Columbia River from its mouth near Astoria, OR, to Portland. Supporters of the dredging program say a 43-foot-deep channel is necessary to accommodate large cargo vessels.
Donald said he is concerned about the safety of future dikes that the Corps would build, and he said that the Woodland dike, built in the early 1920s, has withstood floods, including the flood of 1996, when high water from the Columbia River stretched from the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge to Scappoose.
The diking district added pumps in the Woodland Bottoms in 2000 to help lower the water table on agricultural land.
Donald pointed to the continuing problems that the Corps has had with dikes built after Hurricane Katrina to protect New Orleans. He said that he questions the Corps’ safety record.
Donald said the 105 acres that would become wetlands is valued at about $345 million. The property is owned by Bob, Dick and Nancy Colf and Margaret Colf Hepola.
The Colf family owns the majority of the land designated by the Corps for wetlands mitigation along the Columbia River, Donald said, and the federal agency has been unwilling to listen to suggestions for other locations.
“They want prior use land,” Donald said. “They want something that’s productive and take it out of use.”
“Give the Corps heck when they come,” Donald said.
About 10 percent of the land to be taken for mitigation lies in Oregon and 90 percent is in Washington, he said, with about 80 percent of the Washington land owned by the Colf family.
“As the population has grown, farmland has shrunk at a fast rate. Woodland Bottoms is the last big piece of farmland in Southwest Washington,” Donald said. “The Puyallup Valley is gone; most of the land is gone. It would be a shame if the last 100 acres would go back to swamp.”
The Colf family has been fighting to preserve their farmland in Woodland Bottoms since 1999 when the Corps announced its plan to acquire about 550 acres of the family property for habitat mitigation. Since that time, the family has worked with state representatives and the governor’s office to have the amount of land sought by the Corps reduced to 105 acres.
The Colfs have said repeatedly that they do not want to sell; that they want to continue farming the Bottoms.
Woodland officials are scrambling to balance the city’s proposed 2008 budget before a hearing set for Mon., Dec. 3, 7 p.m.
The general fund revenues, $4.4 million, have been established and include a 1 percent increase in property taxes, but the expenditures are nearly $4.9 million, leaving the city $507,000 in the red.
The city cannot approve a budget that is out of balance, said clerk-treasurer Mari Ripp.
“The budget will be balanced before the public hearing,” she said.
The proposed budget shows a 3.5 to 4 percent increase in city salaries and an addition of one full-time officer for the city fire department. Another temporary position is sought for the clerk’s office.
The general fund supports the city clerk, the mayor, the city council, the police department, the fire department, parks, streets, code enforcement and the library, which receives only $5,000.
A new police car has been budgeted, as has an emergency generator for the business office, a new phone system and computer software.
To balance the budget the city council is expected to develop a base budget with no additions and prioritize an “enhancement list.”
For example, an emergency generator probably would have a higher priority than new computer software, Ripp said. The city cannot use its current generator because it is inadequate to protect the computer systems.
“The police car will have a high priority,” she said. “The city would watch and see what revenues come in this year.”
Another need is a new phone system, Ripp said.
“The phone system is over 20 years old. System failures affect the fire and police departments,” she said. They are no longer making parts for our system.”
The estimated expenditures for 2008 show the police department with the highest expenditures at nearly $1.4 million. The fire department spending budget is $679,122. General facilities, which includes such items as roof replacement and other building maintenance, has been budgeted at $404,107.
The public works department is paid for from water, sewer, building and other fees, although a portion of the public works director’s salary comes from the general fund. For the most part, except for the street fund, public works does not rely on property taxes for income.
A development-construction inspector and a utility service worker are proposed for the public works department. A committee is investigating an increase in water and sewer user fees, but no new fees have been announced.
The city council is expected to adopt the budget at its Dec. 17 meeting.
Alice Perry Linker
staff reporter
Jim Tone, who ran unopposed for the Woodland City Council this year, has resigned his seat after being transferred by his employer to California.
Tone, a 13 year veteran of the council, works for Kroger Inc., parent company of Fred Meyer stores in the northwest. Tone is production manager in the Kroger dairy plant in Riverside, CA.
Tone’s wife Sondra, a member of the Woodland School Board, has resigned from the board effective in January, and will join her husband in Riverside. A branch manager for First Independent Bank, she has also been a member of the Woodland Chamber of Commerce board of directors and is a past president of the Chamber.
When asked if he would miss serving on the council, Tone replied, “Yeah. I enjoyed what I did; interacting with the community, helping the community. But I also enjoy Monday night football.”
The city council meets on the first and third Mondays of each month.
Jim and Sondra Tone moved to Woodland from California 30 years ago, Sondra Tone said. They raised two sons in Woodland--Joe, a paid firefighter for the Woodland Fire Department, and Jeff, a paramedic with AMR Ambulance in Vancouver. The couple has four grandchildren.
Jim Tone was a volunteer firefighter with Woodland for 23 years, retiring with the rank of captain.
“You can see where our kids got their interest,” Sondra Tone said.
In addition to firefighting, Jim Tone was an emergency medical technician (EMT) and was an EMT instructor at Lower Columbia and Clark colleges. He was a member of the Southwest Washington Emergency Medical Services Trauma Council, the agency that oversees trauma care in the region.
“I was an EMT instructor off and on for 15 years,” he said.
Jim Tone said he believes his greatest contribution to the city has been “just being able to listen to people and moving the community in a progressive way; putting up a Web site, improving communication.”
The Tones say they plan to return to Woodland when Jim Tone retires in about seven years.
The city is accepting applications to fill Jim Tone’s position on council and expects to appoint a new member by Jan. 7. An applicant must be at least 18, a registered voter and have lived in the city for at least a year.
Applications are available at the City Annex, 230 Davidson Ave., or by writing the city, P.O. Box 9, Woodland 98674. Information is available at 225-8281.
The city will have a reception and recognition of service Mon., Dec. 17, 6:30-7 p.m., City Hall Council Chambers, 100 Davidson Ave. The reception is open to the public.
The regular council meeting will take place at 7.
Alice Perry Linker
staff reporter
After hearing from nearly 20 people during a Nov. 20 public meeting, the Woodland Port Commission voted not to pursue a lease agreement with a sand-gravel and asphalt plant.
Knife River Corporation with headquarters in Bismarck, ND, sought to lease port property adjacent to Lions Gate Park to build an asphalt plant using gravel barged from its plant in Columbia City, OR, and sand from the Army Corps of Engineers dredging of the Columbia River.
The three commissioners voted 2-1 not to pursue the lease agreement, with Commissioner Tom Wilson the only commissioner to support the lease.
Wilson said that signing the lease would begin a process that would include Cowlitz County, the state environmental agencies and other regulatory agencies.
“A good way to find out if the dike is strong is to go through the process,” Wilson said.
A lease agreement had not been presented to the Port, said commission chairman Jerry Peterson.
“I haven’t seen a lease,” he said.
Peterson said the Port will receive “two million yards of sand” from the dredging project that can be sold for $4.50 or $5 a square yard. He said the sale of the sand could bring in sufficient income that could be used to develop a public marina.
“I’m trying to preserve the river and the dike,” he said. “I think we can do something with a marina, and bring in a lot of money.”
In addition to those who testified, 128 people signed a petition to the Port against the lease.
A majority of those who testified cited the risk to the Woodland Dike from heavy trucks that would move aggregate along Dike Access Road every five minutes. Representatives from the diking district, including Jim Donald, said they feared the structure of the dike was not sufficiently strong to support the trucks.
Landowners who farm in Woodland Bottoms said that the asphalt plant would not be compatible with farming.
Others who testified during the packed meeting said the asphalt operation would keep people away from Lions Gate Park, and they asked the Port to consider building a public marina on the property.
Commissioner Dale Boon, also a member of the diking district, said he had researched Knife River Corporation’s record in Oregon. He said Knife River has been a “very good neighbor” to Oregon communities, including Columbia City and the Port of St. Helens.
“They all say Knife River is very well respected in their community,” he said.
In the end, however, Boon, who said “nobody is more concerned about the dike than I am,” made the motion not to proceed with the proposal, citing the opposition and the concerns of the Woodland community as a primary reason.
At times, the testimony became contentious and speakers challenged the Port commissioners to listen to the people of Woodland.
Jamie Hendrickson, who said she is a neighbor of the proposed plant, accused the Port of “throwing away” the community.
“You’re not allowing the best thing to come,” she said. “Don’t let this be the future. Woodland doesn’t have a vision for the future.”
Others expressed concern about air pollution, including Jerry Ripp who said, “I know what chemicals can do to the land. You can’t contain what’s in the air. The Port should find clean things to bring in.”
Brian Gray, vice president and general manager for the Western Oregon Division of Knife River, said the company needs a heavy industrial zone, such as the land proposed by the Port.
He said the condition of the dike presents the most serious concern.
“We will have engineers study the dike,” he said. “There is a time and place to do the studies.”
He said pollution controls would be put into the plant.
Between three and five jobs were projected to be created by the asphalt plant.
Resident James Kessi said the potential cost of the plant based on the economic cost to the community is “out of proportion.”
He said his research has shown that about 90 percent of the Knife River shareholders live in New York, and he questioned the value of the asphalt plant to Woodland.
“I’d pay a little more for rock to be able to use the park, he said. “This has come at the expense of local people.”
Kessi questioned the goal of the Port.
“Does the Port need to re-evaluate itself?” he asked. “What do the 7,500 people in the district see as the goals. This lease proposal needs to be seriously analyzed.
“I don’t get the sense that the Port is asking what the people want.”
Gray of Knife River and representatives from Columbia River Carbonates who said their company welcomed the asphalt plant were the only people to speak in favor of the plant.