SHULLSBURG – The Shullsburg Community School District’s Board of Education chose FEH Design of Dubuque to complete their vestibule project.

FEH Design bid the design at $2,200, plus mileage reimbursement and printing of hard copies. The mileage wouldn’t be too bad since the designer lives in Cuba City. HSR Associate of La Crosse bid at not to exceed $9,000. IIW, P.C. of Dubuque bid the highest at $14,800.

District Administrator Mark Lierman was charged with getting information from area superintendents on the projects those companies have done. Lierman came back with nothing but praise and good news on each of the designers.

The board had questions pertaining to need for state approval of the project. Kevin Eipperle, Vice President of FEH Design told Lierman in an email that the company sends the state a design and they are comfortable after the conversation. If a state review were required, the cost to the district would be very small. He does not expect any added design fees but only mileage will be reimbursed.

As stated at previous meetings, Nathan Russell expressed his curiosity as to why FEH Design’s bid was so low compared to the other bids and was unsure of their bid.

Other board members expressed the same feelings about the discrepancy in bid prices.

“That is what is making me so uncomfortable,” Jacinda Gunnell added.

“I would say we go with HSR since it is in the middle. Nothing against the other two but I look at IIW and HSR as more similar and then just looking at the difference in cost. I like FEH but there is such a disparity,” Russell said.

Chad Teasdale stated, “It is a small project, so how wrong could they be?”

Lierman agreed stating that the biggest hurdle would be cutting a hole in the office wall for a door and creating an inside entry in the office because the door would need to swing out for escape purposes.

Russell took those ideas to mind and made the motion to hire FEH Design and was seconded by Lee Gill. The motion passed unanimously.