The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
The Board of Education on May 23 conditionally approved nearly $2 million in contracts to prepare one of the buildings it will acquire on the former Consolata Missionaries property on Route 27.
The three contracts are contingent upon the district and township closing on a property swap that both entities have approved. Under the deal, the district will acquire three buildings on about 13 acres of the former Consolata land, while the township will get the school district’s current office building on Amwell Road, as well as the former Municipal Building – located across Amwell – that the district is now renting.
The contracts assume that the closing will take place by May 31. If they do not, one of the contracts would have to be re-bid, said schools Superintendent John Ravally.
What’s holding matters up is a notice of bulk sales clearance from the state Treasury Department, Ravally said. The letter is needed to ensure no tax liability is carried on the properties to the new owners, even though all entities involved are tax-exempt.
” The state treasury department is telling the township they’ll have the letter to them on or around the 28th,” Ravally said.
The contracts apply to the building that will be known as the community center, Ravally said. The building will house the district registrar and food services office.
The companies slated to be awarded the contracts are:
- Academy Construction, which will be awarded a $274,435 contract to remove asbestos and mold from the building.
- Integrity Roofing, which will be awarded a $769,140 contract for exterior renovations and selective demolition on the building. This is the contract that would have to be re-bid should the district and township not close by May 31, because a mandatory 60-day time limit from the time the bid was accepted would have expired.
- Catcord Construction Company, which will be awarded a $948,800 contract for interior renovations and selective demolition on the building.
Should the closing happen by the anticipated date, Ravally said, whatever demolition is needed – such as doors or ceiling tiles being removed, or parts of the roof removed – would begin in June.
“Then the roof and exterior work would be over the summer and then the interior work would start, in hopes that by mid-fall, late-fall, the work is done,” he said.
Once the “community building” building is done, Ravally said, work on the rear spaces would begin.
He said the district hopes to be totally moved into the new buildings by December 2020.
The township purchased the 65-acre property in May 2017 from the Consolata Mission for $14 million. In addition to the district offices, plans are to build a YMCA on about 10 acres, and dedicate about 42 acres as open space.
