(Atlantic,Iowa) – Members of the Atlantic School District’s Board of Education met in a Special Session Thursday afternoon in the Central Office at the Achievement Center. The purpose of the meeting was to finally bring to a close, a situation whereby the District kept a retainer from the project contractor, until the project was finished to the District’s satisfaction. Before they discussed and acted on a related change order, AIA documents and final pay application for Graphite Construction of Des Moines, Superintendent Steve Barber reflected on the past year.

Wednesday, July 27th, marked the one-year anniversary of the Atlantic Middle School Fire, that caused classes to be relocated to different buildings and forced the District to – as the Marines say – “Improvise, Adapt and Overcome” the obstacles associated with the incident, in combination with the stress of dealing with COVID. With less than a month away from the first day of school, Mr. Barber said they’ll be ready.

School Board Vice-President Laura McLean echoed those sentiments.

Atlantic School Board, 7-28-22; Ric Hanson/photo

With regard to the Atlantic Athletic Facilities Improvement Project, Mr. Barber said after the meeting, that while the process of getting the work wrapped-up, despite the fact it took much longer than expected, it’s done, and time to move on and they are excited to get THIS school year started in the right way.

The Atlantic School Board, Thursday (today) approved a Change Order for the Project in the amount of $1,000 from Graphite, plus 100-pounds of grass seed, due to the fact the grass performance at the High School and other places was not up to the Engineer’s standard, by the middle of July, and the first seeding window opportunity had closed. The District is in the process of acquiring a seeder, and the District intends to seed the grounds during the third week of August, which is the second window of opportunity.

The Board also approved the AIA Final Documents,which essentially is completed contract billing throughout the project; The documents are created mainly to assist architects working on a construction project to be paid for the work completed on the project. In this case, the documents included: Consent of Surety to Final Payment; Contractor’s Affidavit of Payment of Debts and Claims, and Contractor’s Affidavit of Release of Liens.

The Board also approved a final pay application to Graphite Construction in the amount of $240,072.30. They also acknowledged the Final Completion of the Atlantic Athletic Facilities Project. Board Member Josh McLaren…