The Wright City R-II School Board has chosen the contractor to complete the performance gym at the new high school.

At the December board meeting, the body unanimously approved LCS as the contractor to build the gym, among the seven companies that submitted bids.

District Superintendent Dr. Amy Salvo applauded the smooth process by which the contractor, LCS, was selected.

“We were very happy,” Salvo said. “It’s always great when bids come in under budget and under a third-party estimate. It’s a great day for that.”

LCS’ bid of $8,646,000 came in more than $100,000 below the nearest competitor.

Erik Wilson of Bond Architects presented to the board details regarding the process.

“We worked with administration and finalized the design,” Wilson said. “With all the administration, the new (athletics) director and the current coaches, we just wanted to make sure this was what everybody wanted. The economy is very good, and you can see that from the sheer number of bids we received. The range in bids was about $1 million from low to high.”

Wilson said that one of the main questions from the various contractors, which led to four bid addenda, related to the type of scoreboard planned for the gym.

“Questions are good for us,” Wilson said. “We don’t generally like putting out (addenda) for every question, but every question we get shows that contractors are looking at the documents and reading them. The more they do that, the more accurate the bids should be.”

Board member Kyle Lewis asked Wilson why LCS was chosen over the next-lowest bidder, Hankins Construction.

“I’d received feedback from a couple of firms that had used (LCS) and they indicated that LCS is an outstanding company,” Wilson said. “They indicated that they would work with them at any given point in time. They said LCS is a top-notch organization.”

Salvo added that the company has a glowing recommendation from a recent client.

LCS is currently working with the Orchard Farm School District.

“I called the superintendent, whom I know really well, and he called me back immediately,” Salvo said. “His words were ‘the best.’ Any project moving forward, they want to use LCS. They’re building an elementary school. They’re under budget and ahead of schedule. They also had less than one percent in change orders. On a $40 million elementary school, they had less than $60,000 (or 0.15 percent) in change orders. He said, ‘Amy, they are the best.’ I said I was going to hold (him) to that. References came back stellar.”

Board President Austin Jones questioned Assistant Superintendent of Operations Matt Abernathy about the use of the Highway F entrance for LCS’s use in performance center construction once the project commences.

“The Highway F entrance was approved previously with the construction of the high school building as a construction entrance,” Abernathy said. “That permit is still standing. Once we give MODOT the name of the new company that will be constructing our gym, it will function as a construction entrance only.”

The project is expected to take 18 months to complete once it begins, although no official start date has yet been given.