The Indianola School Board approved the bid for the Indianola High School Renovation and Addition Project at their meeting Monday for over $67.5 million, including additional add-ons not in the initial bid including extra storage space, six additional classrooms, and the courtyard of the academic wing area.

Superintendent Ted Ihns tells KNIA News that while the alternates do cost more money, the board wanted to be able to complete those projects at a known price, while not interfering with the next phase of the project.

“You can always do the alternates later, but then you are still going out for bids and trying to get stuff done. At least this is a known commodity, it’s a known price of what you are going to get. So again, it’s not like you are going down the road two years, and let’s say if something was going to be $175,000, not knowing what inflation is or what it is going to be, all of a sudden that bid could come back as $325,000. So it’s good to get it done, and know exactly where you are going to be at and what your financial package is going to be.”

For more information, tune in to today’s Let’s Talk Indianola.