Denville school board's move to town hall will cost more than planned

DENVILLE — The district underestimated the cost to build offices for school officials inside the township's Town Hall by about $100,000.

This week the town introduced an ordinance that allows $105,000 in addition to the initial $175,000 approved to go to the construction of offices for seven school district employees at 1 St. Mary Place. 

“We originally appropriated $175,000 and went out to bid,” said Steven Forte, superintendent of schools. “The low bid came in at $233,000. Therefore we need to appropriate additional funds to get the project started.” 

Initial estimates ranged between $155,000 and $175,000 for the renovations that would get the school board out of the  offices it currently rents on Ford Road. 

The town and the school district worked out an arrangement for the sake of simplifying possible insurance issues or claims related to the work, said Denville Administrator Steven Ward.

As part of the agreement, town officials will hire and pay the contractor and later be reimbursed for the cost by the school board.

The renovations include creating a separate office suite in the Construction Department.

“Besides walls to separate the BOE side from the Township Construction side, the BOE is also constructing several offices within the suite for the administrator, business administrator, etc.,” Ward said. 

The plans also call for modifications to the HVAC system, the sprinkler system and other smaller, items.

Ward said moving the superintendent, school business administrator and staff of roughly seven will save money for the town.
 
In "five years or less” the savings on rent will offset the cost of the renovations, said Ward. The initial time table had school officials moving in with municipal officials as early as this fall. The contract, however, has yet to be awarded. 

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“We went out to bid on the project and all of the bids came in substantially higher than the budgeted amount,” said Ward. “Therefore, in order to proceed forward, we are going to need to appropriate more funds in order to award a contract.” 

This week the BOE voted to allocate the additional money and the town — working in conjunction with the BOE on the project — approved the ordinance to go out to bid. 

Awarding the contract should take a couple of months, Forte said. He is now hopeful that this will happen in the spring of 2018. 

The public hearing on the matter, as well as the adoption vote are scheduled for Oct. 17.

Email: myers@northjersey.com