Bridgehampton School Contracts Awarded

The Bridgehampton School Board voted unanimously on Oct. 17 to award all four contracts for the expansion and renovation of the school, clearing the way for the project to begin by November. If any funds go unspent by the end of the project, they will be used to pay down the district’s debt.

Stalco Construction, a New York City company with offices in Islandia, won the general contractor bid of $18.54 million, by far the largest portion of the project. Stalco is a 26-year-old company that specializes in institutional, medical, and commercial construction. Some of its recent, similarly scaled projects include Long Beach High School and Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn.

A $1.974-million electrical contract went to Palace Electrical Contractors of Wantagh.

Central Air Heating and Cooling of Roslyn Heights received a $3.4-million contract to handle the school’s HVAC systems, and Ambrosio and Company, which is based in Ronkonkoma, landed a $1.16-million plumbing contract.

The contracts totaled $25.07 million, comfortably under the $29.4 million that district residents approved in two separate bond votes, the first in late 2016 and the second in September. The September vote, seeking an additional $4.74 million, was needed because cost increases had occurred during the district’s yearlong wait to get its building permit from the state, a prerequisite to soliciting bids. 

Robert Hauser, the district superintendent, said in a phone interview before the board’s vote that the placement of construction barriers on school grounds should be the first change parents and students are likely to see. The district hopes to complete the work in time for the 2020-21 school year.

Once completed, the project is scheduled to double the size of the 80-year-old building to approximately 35,000 square feet, update its mechanical systems, install geothermal heating, and add badly needed classroom space, as well as adding a new library, cafeteria, gym, and locker rooms and music rooms. The prekindergarten will be moved into the main building and out of the 40-year-old modular classrooms on the west side of the building.

“We’re the only school district on the East End that has not done capital improvement in the last 25 years, and we are direly in need,” Lillian Tyree-Johnson, vice president of the Bridgehampton Board of Education, told the audience at a public forum before the September bond vote.

At present, 229 students from kindergarten through the 12th grade attend the school.