Decorah School Board approves lowest bid for softball complex upgrades

Emergent Architecture's Nick Hildebrandt joined the meeting by Zoom and addressed the board's concerns about the project's increased price, which is above the original $300,000 estimate.

Hildebrandt said, "I'm pretty disappointed with how the numbers came in. With COVID-19, it is just a volatile time for many of the materials needed for the project." Making up the biggest difference in the estimate and the low bid is the price per square foot for the planned concessions and restroom building.  Originally, it was estimated it would cost $150 per square foot, but the lowest bid had this number jumping to $350 per square foot.

Many options were considered and discussed about how to make the overall cost more palatable, such as doing the project in phases, removing certain items, scrapping part of the plans, or waiting until a later time to begin. Pursuing ideas that deviate from the original plans come with legal hoops to jump through and would potentially throw off the timing of the project's completion. And as Director Ben Lange pointed out, "My experience with building projects is that if you wait a year, the prices don't go down."