School to begin $5 million project

— Taking advantage of the summer break between school terms, the Pea Ridge School Board authorized Baldwin & Shell to begin site and utility work on the Intermediate School campus as soon as possible to finish that work before the fall semester begins.

“All that needs to be done this summer,” Steve Elliott, architect, said. “The state will allow us to bid the site andutility work in the next couple of weeks.”

Elliott said bids for the complete project could not be advertised until the plans are presented to the state Department of Education and approved, which could take four weeks. It could then take another four weeks for advertising for bids, meaning construction and remodeling could begin the first of July. The $5,289,533 project is estimated to take 12 months to finish.

Community, Pages 8 on 04/13/2011