Tom McElrath of McElrath & Oliver Architects of Gadsden said his firm met with general contractors last week in Centre to discuss specifics of the building project. One general contractor will be chosen for the campus construction and bids for that contractor will be opened April 19 at 2 p.m., McElrath said.
The state will have to review the contractor’s proposals for the $20 million plus project before construction can begin, but McElrath said he is hopeful there will be “mobility on the site” by the first half of May.
McElrath & Oliver were hired after the architects who designed the campus, which will include an educational complex and arena, were dismissed from the project. That firm had ties to the fired chancellor of the two-year college system in Alabama.
The steel for the structure should be on the site by late June or the first of July, although McElrath said he hesitated to give a firm date.
Thereasa Hulgan, executive director of the Cherokee County Chamber of Commerce, said she attended the pre-bid meeting last week and she is optimistic that construction is about to begin.
She said she was pleased to hear that the educational building and the arena are projected to be completed by fall 2008. The Chamber of Commerce office will be located on the Gadsden State Cherokee campus.
Cherokee County Chairman Melvyn Salter said the campus will be an asset to the county. Salter, who also attended the meeting last week, said the county should see activity soon at the site, which has been vacant since last fall.
The site preparation has already been completed, McElrath said, which will speed things along, and the steel structural pieces are being pre-fabricated off-site, which also give a jump-start on the construction.
Despite the lack of activity on the site for several months, the preparations that architects and other partners in the project have been making during that time will make the process go more smoothly, he said
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