While the district has yet to select the companies that will handle most of the dirty work for its upcoming high school renovation project, the Dowagiac school board selected the firm that will help ensure the building remains safe long after the job is finished.

The Union Schools Board of Education voted Monday to award a contract to Trust Thermal Abatement Inc. to perform asbestos removal work from Dowagiac Union High School, in conjunction with the upcoming construction project. The Owosso, Michigan, company delivered the lowest of the three firms that bid on the contract, with an estimate of $375,400 to complete the work.

The firm will perform the work during other construction tasks at the school, as part of the estimated $16 million renovation project, which is expected to break ground this summer. This project, along with other planned renovations to the district’s four elementary schools and football stadium, will be funded by the $37 million pair of bonds passed by district voters in November 2015.

The asbestos abatement is a
required step of the construction process under state law, said Superintendent Paul Hartsig.

“One our commitments when we started this project was increasing the safety and security of the school for our students and the community, and this is an important step to accomplish that,” Hartsig said.

Although students are not currently at risk from exposure to the substance, construction work will unsettle places where the asbestos is present. This could pose a risk to construction crews, students and other building inhabitants if the substance is not removed beforehand, Hartsig said.

The district has spent months inspecting Union High in preparation for placing the project for bid, working with Portage’s BDN Industrial Hygiene to locate places where the fire-retardant was used.

“Asbestos is hidden in all kinds of places, from the beneath the tiles on the floor to above the ones on the ceiling,” he said. “One of the places we discovered them was in the caulk that sealed the windows.”

Trust Thermal’s bid came in higher than the $315,000 the district initially anticipated for the project, though the superintendent said it would have been difficult to accurately predict the price tag of the abatement.

“We are hopeful we can get that number down even further once they start the process,” he said.

Bids for the remaining work for the high school overhaul — which includes updates to classrooms, offices and the construction of a new gym — are due next Thursday, Feb. 23.

Hartsig also informed the board that design work for new ADA-compliant bleachers for Chris Taylor Alumni Field are nearly complete, and that the district expects to place the project up for bid in the coming weeks.