Puzzling moves for Whitefish

We have a few questions about the Whitefish High School reconstruction project, and we’re guessing there are some Whitefish voters who are scratching their heads right about now, too.

To refresh your memory, the Whitefish School District hired Steeplechase Development Advisors, led by consultant Bayard Dominick, and paid them $310,000 to have Steeplechase help plan the rebuild and push through a $14 million bond issue for the $19 million project.

School improvements haven’t been an easy sell for Whitefish in recent years. The district had tried unsuccessfully twice before to sell the community on an upgraded high school, and finally won approval in May.

Eyebrows were raised recently when the Whitefish School Board picked Langlas and Associates of Bozeman to rebuild the school for a proposed $17.7 million, while two local contractors’ estimates came in close to $3 million less. Dominick explained to the Inter Lake that the reason for the range of cost estimates was because some of the contractors included different things in their proposals.

This is puzzling.

Shouldn’t requests for proposals ask for the same information from all firms? Why wasn’t a standard bidding process used? In this case the request-for-proposal process apparently meant different things to different contractors. But no worries, Dominick said. He pointed out Langlas and Associates “communicate a high level of confidence that we will get the costs for this project down to the number approved by the voters.”

Then last week we learned another 2,254 square feet have been added to the project, and the exterior design now sports a lodge-like exterior with natural stonework. School officials promised all along the rebuild wouldn’t be a “Taj Mahal” for Whitefish, but it looks like the community will be getting a much fancier facade than expected.

And Dominick has changed his tune about the cost confidence. He told the Whitefish Pilot last week “this increase [in square footage] will create some additional pressure on the total budget for the project.”

Don’t forget that roughly $5 million of the funding for the rebuild is coming from outside sources ranging from private donors to grant money. The district still has about $500,000 in alternate money left to raise. Is some of that outside funding in jeopardy if there are perceived cost overruns before the first footing is even laid?

We encourage the school district and Steeplechase to provide better explanations for the turnabout in design plans and the contractor selection. Steeplechase will split an additional $322,500 in school money with Dow’s Custom Construction to represent the district on the high school project.

Whitefish voters put their trust in the school district in approving the $14 million bond issue that will take tax money out of their pockets for many years to come to pay for the rebuild. If that trust is compromised, it could well affect the school district’s ability in the future to win approval of even the most modest school levies.