Alamance Community College’s trustees voted 9-0 during their latest meeting to award a $3.4 million contract to Central Builders of Mebane to renovate several areas within the Gee, Main, and Powell buildings on the Graham campus, as part of the $39.6 million bond package that voters approved for ACC in November 2018.
ACC received six bids late last month in response to a request for proposals to renovate several areas across all three buildings, and Central Builders submitted the lowest responsive, responsible bid, based on information provided to the trustees.
The renovations to the three existing buildings at the Graham campus is the third project being funded by proceeds from the 2018 bond package for ACC. The project includes renovations of classrooms, labs, offices, the library and childcare center, as well as an expansion of nursing classrooms and labs.
The bid from Central was $738,722 below the original $4.1 million construction budget for the renovations, said trustee Bill Gomory, who serves as chairman of ACC’s building and grounds committee. He said the college’s administration would put the $738,722 estimated difference between the cost of the contract with Central Builders and the original construction budget would be put “in the kitty,” adding, “We will need to repurpose it for somewhere else.”
In part, ACC’s administration has reduced the scope of some portions of the project, mainly opting not to replace asbestos-based floor tiles with new flooring inside the Main Building.
The Gee Building was completed in 2005; the Main Building, in the early 1970s; and the Powell Building; in 2007. The two newest buildings on the Graham campus, the Biotechnology Center of Excellence and Student Services Center, opened this spring; construction of both was funded by proceeds from the $39.6 million bond package passed in 2018.
Gomory didn’t mention during his report on the building and grounds committee when the renovations are scheduled to begin, or when they will be complete.
The vote to award the contract to Central Builders was 9-0, with ACC trustees Jim Butler, Julie Emmons, and Sylvia Muñoz absent from the meeting.
In other business, the trustees also voted unanimously to reelect their current chairman, Blake Williams, to an additional one-year term in that role and Emmons to an additional one-year term as their vice chairman.
In keeping with their customary practice, the trustees also voted 9-0 to elect interim president Dr. Larry Keen to serve as the board’s secretary until June 30, 2024, or until a permanent successor to former ACC president Dr. Algie Gatewood can be hired.
