HPM updates council members on school construction timeline
Tommy Alfano of Hoar Program Management updated the Homewood City Council's finance committee tonight on what's coming up in the near future for construction at Homewood's schools.
Alfano said bids for construction and resurfacing of the Waldrop Stadium track have come in under budget and been approved by the Board of Education. The bids to create a new HVAC control system for the entire school system also came in under budget, he said, and they have added the schools' security vestibule features into the bid package as well.
Work on these projects will take place over the summer, Alfano said.
HPM is beginning demolition and construction work on the additions and renovations at all Homewood City Schools this summer, with work to continue through fall 2019. These are broken up into several projects:
- Steel for Homewood High School projects - bid in late April, contract selected in May
- Homewood Middle School addition and renovation - bid in May, construction from June 2018 to June 2019
- Demolition of HHS field house and fine arts building - bid in May, demolition from June to August 2018
- Addition on north side of HHS - Design is roughly 60 percent complete, bid in June, construction from August 2018 to fall 2019
- Interior modifications to HHS - Design is 30 percent complete, bid in September, construction from October 2018 to October 2019
- Elementary school additions and interior work - Design is 30 percent complete, bid in October, construction from January to fall 2019
Alfano told the finance committee that HPM will install fencing and other safety measures to keep construction from impacting students during the school year. Additionally, he said the company will attempt to complete work on Homewood High's cafeteria and Bailey Theatre over the summer so kids' schedules won't be impacted.
See more specifics of the plans to expand Homewood's schools here.
The finance committee also discussed the purchase or lease of a new time clock system tonight. City Clerk Melody Salter said the city's departments use different systems, some of which are not efficient for tracking hours and payroll.
City accountant Robert Burgett recommended the use of a new product, called Executime, from Tyler Technologies, which provides other software to the city. Executime could work to track hours for every department except the fire department, Burgett said, which would require creation of a unique system.
Purchasing the system would cost about $58,564 in the first year, with roughly $6,000 in travel and training expenses. After that, the city would host its own system and it would cost about $4,748 annually for the next three years to maintain. Burgett said Tyler outlined a 5 percent increase every three years moving forward.
“It is a tenth of what others are charging for that type of recurring fees,” Burgett said.
It would take about six to eight months to implement the time clock system.
Burgett listed advantages of the system, including automatically importing employee time sheets rather than re-entering them by hand, which takes more time and leaves room for errors. The system would also more accurately track hours and could create a system for employees like police officers to check in digitally as long as they're in an approved, "geo-fenced" area within the city.
The finance committee had concerns about whether the project needs to go through the bidding process. They and city attorney Mike Kendrick were unsure if it would be considered exempt since the purchase is of proprietary software, so they decided to carry over the discussion to take more time to figure out where it fits within bidding regulations.
The full council will meet next on Monday, April 23.