Contract set for new Marion Local middle school

MARIA STEIN - Marion Local school board members awarded a $21,290,212 contract to Touchstone CDP for the construction of a new middle school building at a special meeting Thursday morning. With bids coming in under estimate, school officials reported they were able to include several upgrades in the contract.

"It definitely was good news," superintendent Mike Pohlman said of the favorable bid results. "It provided us with the opportunity to choose some alternates. One of the big things was it was important to have a metal roof because it would extend the life of the roof over a rubber roof."

Among the other alternates added to the project were a divider curtain for the new gym and using concrete for the bus parking lot, according to Pohlman.

Pohlman credited Touchstone, a Lima company serving as project manager, with securing the lower bids. "It's been good to work with Touchstone; they worked very hard to solicit those bids and answering questions along with Garmann Miller (a Minster architectural and engineering firm)."

Pohlman explained that the contract was awarded to Touchstone, which in turn will contract with the subcontractors for the various aspects of building construction.

Steve Schroeder, Touchstone vice president, told The Daily Standard in an interview Wednesday that a total of 85 bids were received for 24 building construction categories. He said there were about three to five bids per category.

"We're under estimate," Schroeder said of the project. "We're sitting pretty good."

Schroeder said cold weather has prevented the project from moving faster but it hasn't caused major problems. "It's not anything to get excited about, we're right on schedule," Schroeder said, noting work on the building foundation should begin in March or April.

"We need some warm days to draw the frost out of the ground so Bruns (Construction) can start getting the building pad ready," Pohlman said.

Pohlman said the new building is expected to be ready for the start of the 2026-2027 school year. In addition to work on the early phases of the building construction, Pohlman said decisions will be made this spring or summer on some design issues, such as what color the classrooms will be painted.

The new building will house 11 junior high and special education classrooms, an agriculture education suite including two classrooms and a greenhouse, a two-court high school gymnasium with seating capacity of 2,000, kindergarten through eighth-grade cafeteria/commons area, four locker rooms (two of which could serve football programs as well as indoor sport teams), and administrative offices.

The total cost of the project has been set at $23.3 million. The project will be financed through a 0.5% earned income tax and a 5.3-mill property tax levy approved by voters in November 2023. Both taxes will be collected for 30 years.

The next regular board meeting will be at 7 p.m. March 10 in the board conference room in the former media room at the high school building.