BOZEMAN, Mont.- The Bozeman School Board had to make the decision Friday afternoon on how much they’re willing to spend on the new stadium. After a unanimous vote from the trustees, they’ll be spending $7.5 million on the new stadium, rather than the extra $1.8 million that was proposed.
The $1.8 million would allow construction of a north end locker room building. Building the locker room with the stadium rather than waiting until later could save money with construction costs being on the rise. This decision was made because it comes with less risk.
“What I’m hearing now from our contractor is that if you vote to approve everything today, they’re likely going to award everything today,” Superintendent Rob Watson said. “The only reservation I have about that is once they award it we can’t really pull it back.”
There was also a concern if the vote had gone through for the extra $1.8 million, there wouldn’t be enough money afterward for renovations to the classrooms and a new auditorium at the current high school.
“But if you were going to say we’re going to lose an auditorium to get a stadium. I would say no a 100 times out of 100,” Chair of Bozeman School Board Andy Willett said. “So then there’s a risk there’s a risk piece that we have to say, ‘lets make sure we get this all done.’“
Contractors said they’re confident there will be enough money for everything planned for the new high school … renovations to the current one and the stadium. This $1.8 million is already included in the $125 million bond that was passed last year.
“I get it, this is not a perfect project and our timing is never going to be perfect as far as the risk of build everything in an exact sequence. I think this does alleviate a lot of other problems that could come forward with the renovation as far as traffic and circulation around the school,” Willett said.
Adding the $1.8 million is something trustees plan to revisit and reconsider in the next couple of weeks once they have more concrete numbers from the contractors for the renovations to the current high school.
