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COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A school construction controversy in north Columbus continues to unfold as students at the Ohio State School for the Blind and the Ohio School for the Deaf (pictured) wait to learn what will be cut from their future campus.
The project's construction manager, Bovis, and a project administrator from the Ohio School Facilities Commission met Wednesday to look at potential cuts.
In June, the state bid out the project with an estimated $28 million budget, but when bids came back in July, the lowest bid was 41 percent over budget, leaving the state $11 million short. The OSFC needs to trim an at least $8.5 million from the project after finding an initial $2.5 million in cost savings.
"We are looking to see if there are ways that we can change how we design the buildings how we use the buildings, what materials we use," said OSFC spokesperson Rick Savors.
Administrators from the two schools will meet next week next week with project administrators to consider cuts, after the initial bidding process attracted fewer subcontractor proposals than expected. Savors said the OSFC still does not know why so few subcontractors bid on the project, leading to higher prices.
"What we have right now is mostly anecdotal as to why different companies didn't bid for their particular reasons, so now we want to see if we can find some commonality."
The Associated Builders and Contractors of Ohio argues that the state union labor requirement on the project is responsible for the cost hike. ABC is running a $55,000 ad campaign on eleven Ohio radio stations that cites an Ohio Inspector General report that found OSFC Director Richard Murray abused his authority in favoring unions..
The ad states, "Governor Strickland, it's time to do your job. Fire Richard Murray now."
Murray rejects the charge and still has Governor Strickland's support.
On Wednesday, Strickland's spokesperson, Amanda Wurst, responded the ad, "Governor Strickland has always been on the side of working people and he isn't going to apologize for that. He believes that the men and women who build Ohio's schools deserve fair pay for a hard day's work. Apparently, Let Ohio Know, John Kasich, and other Republican allies don't agree with policies that support Ohio workers who are working hard to support their families and communities, but won't hesitate to shamelessly attack those who do."
Beth Haller, Ph.D., is Co-Director of the Global Alliance for Disability in Media and Entertainment (www.gadim.org). A former print journalist, she is a member of the Advisory Board for the National Center on Disability and Journalism (https://ncdj.org/). Haller is Professor Emerita in the Department of Mass Communication at Towson University in Maryland, USA. Haller is co-editor of the 2020 "Routledge Companion to Disability and Media" (with Gerard Goggin of University of Sydney & Katie Ellis of Curtin University, Australia). She is author of "Representing Disability in an Ableist World: Essays on Mass Media" (Advocado Press, 2010) and the author/editor of Byline of Hope: Collected Newspaper and Magazine Writing of Helen Keller (Advocado Press, 2015). She has been researching disability representation in mass media for 30+ years. She is adjunct faculty in the Disability Studies programs at the City University of New York (CUNY) and the University of Texas-Arlington.
From NBC4-TV in Columbus:
