- November 6, 2024
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The Flagler Auditorium, on the campus of Flagler Palm Coast High School, has planned for years to upgrade its restrooms and office space.
It finally got state grant money this year to do it, but there's a problem: No companies have entered bids to do the construction, and the work has to start by June 30 to meet the conditions of the grant.
School District Plant Services Director Dave Freeman told the School Board at its June 20 meeting that nine contractors had expressed interest in the work and attended a pre-bid meeting, but none followed through and entered bids.
"This is so odd to me," School Board member Colleen Conklin said to Freeman at the meeting. "What do you believe, or what is your gut feeling, in regards to why we can’t seem to get anyone to bid on this project?"
"My gut feeling is that part of it is we did not give a budget for the project, and I think that that could have been some of our bonding issue," Freeman replied.
The district reached out to the contractors after it didn't received bids from them, he said. Several replied to the district and said there were bonding issues with the project, but didn't specify what the issues were; several others said they had too much work already; and some didn't reply.
The district might have to split the auditorium project up into two or more smaller ones in order to find a contractor willing to handle the construction, Freeman said.
Auditorium Executive Director Lisa McDevitt is in contact with the state to see whether the grant money could be extended until the district is able to get a contract, Freeman said.
