JCHS parking work is awarded

Muhlenkamp Building Corporation is already working on one parking lot at Jay County High School.

It will stick around to fix up another.

Jay School Board awarded the contract for work on the north parking lot at JCHS to Muhlenkamp for $174,970 during a special meeting this morning.

Muhlenkamp, based in Coldwater, Ohio, was the lone bidder for the work on the north lot — the main lot adjacent to the gym entrances. The work will involve grinding the lot, paving and re-striping.

The work will be paid for from leftover money in the school corporation’s operations fund from a previous bond refinancing.

The board held the special meeting in order to get the work moving rather than waiting until its next regular meeting July 20 to award the bid, Jay School Corporation superintendent Jeremy Gulley said this morning. That will allow Muhlenkamp more time to complete the work prior to the scheduled start of school Aug. 12. (The school board is expected to make a final decision on the reopening of school amidst the coronavirus pandemic during its July meeting.)

Muhlenkamp is already working on a $751,567 project to expand Jay County High School’s east parking lot — adjacent to the main office entrance — to allow for better traffic flow as seventh and eighth graders shift to the high school building for the first time this fall.

The expansion will create a bus parking lot on the east side of the building, separating it from the current staff and visitor parking. Parent drop-off and pick-up of students will would be on the south side of the building. The main parking lot at the north side would be for high school students and the general public.

Muhlenkamp is also the contractor for renovations to the high school building as part of the consolidation process.

Also this morning, the board approved a $131,399.50 purchase of English language arts textbooks from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.