School board moves ELC project forward along with TNHS auditorium plans
By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio
Tuesday, March 17, 2015, 9 p.m. — The Nelson County Board of Education approved hiring Studio Kremer as architects for the project to expand the district’s Early Learning Center at 1200 Cardinal Dr. in Bardstown.
Superintendent Anthony Orr and acting board chair Diane Berry talk during Tuesday’s meeting of the Nelson County Board of Education.
The board also agreed to hire BCD Inc. as construction manager of the ELC project. As construction manager, BCD will be prohibited from bidding on any part of the project.
The board also agreed to move forward with initial proposals to build an auditorium at Thomas Nelson High School.
“We’re close to being able to fund that project as well as the ELC,” Tim Hockensmith, the district’s chief operating officer told the board.
“The worse case scenario, we’re a year off from building it. In the best case, we do it this year,” he said. “It’s very close.”
The deciding factor on the auditorium project will be construction bids for the ELC, which will determine if the district can also afford to build the Thomas Nelson High School project.
Board members Larry Pate and Diane Berry supported the district pushing forward on construction of the project, noting the parents of Thomas Nelson students were promised the auditorium project would be built.
“Unless you’re in the arts, you don’t know what an auditorium really means,” Berry said. “You have to have a place for concerts, performance and other art events.”
SURPLUS BUS SALE. The board also agreed to sell the buses it plans to replace this year via the Kentucky Interlocal School Transportation Association (KISTA). KISTA will attempt to sell the buses as part of its annual school bus auction this summer. The district will have the final say on if it wishes to accept the winning bids on each of the buses sold.
The district will place six buses for sale in the KISTA auction in anticipation of taking delivery of six new ones this summer, Hockensmith said.
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