The Sparta Area School District recently interviewed five firms for the selection of engineer and construction managers regarding the Sparta Memorial Field project proposals. Ultimately the Committee of the Whole recommended the school board approve Rettler Corporation as the engineer manager and Market & Johnson as the construction manager for the project.
Earlier this year, the Forward Facilities Committee recommended the Sparta School Board prioritize improvements to Memorial Field.
The Request for Proposal (RFP) of the field renovation, which was based on the three favorite football fields of the head coach and athletic director, included a walking track, an artificial turf for football and soccer, LED athletic field lights, replacement bleachers, a new pressbox, scoreboard and fencing.
The current bleacher capacity is about 1,400. The new bleachers would have a capacity of 1,500 to 2,000.
According to Superintendent Dr. Amy Van Deuren, the crowd on hand for interviews consisted of coaches from both the football and soccer teams as well as administrators and community members.
A total of five firms bid for the project, all of which Van Deuren said came with experience and great qualifications. Among the candidates were Rettler Corporation and Point of Beginning Inc. both from Stevens Point as well as the three La Crosse-based companies Market & Johnson, Fowler & Hammer Inc. and ISG Inc.
Following the interview process, each firm was rated based on its qualifications, work plans, project fees and interviews.
“As we look at our engineering firms, ISG, Rettler and Point of Beginning were very, very close. ISG has done several stadiums; they haven’t done a ton in Wisconsin,” Van Deuren said. “I would say most of the Wisconsin stadiums have been done by Rettler and Point of Beginning.”
Van Deuren added that both Rettler and Point of Beginning had examples of great projects. Rettler’s project fee was almost $90,000 higher than Point of Beginning’s, however Rettler rated higher on their interview and their work plan.
“Point of Beginning used to work for Rettler, so they had a lot of the same philosophy and a lot of the same work ethic and information,” Van Deuren said. “We liked them both.”
For the committee, Point of Beginning and Rettler were at the top of the list for an engineer manager. ISG had some creative ideas, but the committee thought those ideas might stretch the budget.
“We did present a budget of $2.8 million for the project,” Van Deuren said. “We stayed well under $3 million.”
The project will partly be funded through the sale of other district facilities and Fund 46.
The committee felt that Rettler’s presentation was a little more polished and creative than the other firms’ presentations, however, the committee felt comfortable recommending either Rettler or Point of Beginning.
“Taking cost out of the equation, it was Rettler by a tad,” said Leah Hauser, director of Business Services. “Once we put in the cost, it was Point of Beginning.”
Prior to choosing the three favorite fields in which the RFP was based on, the committee did not know who had designed them. The committee later learned that all three of the fields were designed by Rettler.
When it came to construction managers, Rettler and ISG wanted to be considered for both the engineer and construction manager, however, the district declined that option.
“The clear winner overall was Market & Johnson in terms of their interview and their work plan,” Van Deuren said.
All of the firms were adamant about one thing and that was that the project needs to get started soon, especially when it comes to ordering bleachers. As most projects are on a 10-month waiting list for bleachers, the recommendation was that the district get pre-bids on its grandstand and press box to get it ordered as soon as possible.
“They would like to get soil borings sooner rather than later,” Van Deuren said. “I would say Market & Johnson and Fowler & Hammer both thought that they could get it done in early August of next year, but that it would be a stretch and it would take pushing everything to keep things moving.”
The district’s RFP went out with a bid date of somewhere in February to early March, which may get moved back to mid-January for everything except the bleachers.
“We’re looking at the first football game and want to have occupancy at the end of August,” said Hauser. “When we’re talking about condensing the timeline, the bleachers are really driving that.”
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