Overbudget Simsbury High Stadium Project Scores Touchdown With Surplus Dollars

SIMSBURY, CT — Faced with a Simsbury High School football stadium bleacher project that was well over budget, selectmen recently approved a fiscal transfer to take care of the problem.

The Simsbury Board of Selectmen voted unanimously Nov. 28 to approve transfering $345,000 from the SHS' air conditioning project budget to the SHS stadium bleacher project.

The reason for the transfer? That usual inflation bugaboo that has impacted public construction projects all over.

Simsbury had approved $600,000 in the 2021-22 budget for the bleacher replacement.

But, according to Simsbury Town Manager Maria Capriola, the lowest bid for the work was $880,000 — $345,000 more than budgeted.

In a memo to selectmen, local officials said fuel cost increases, aluminum cost hikes and "overall inflation" contributed to the shocking price hike.

But while the high school bleacher project's budget was a runaway freight train, the budget for the $1.65 million SHA air conditioning project, which was in the 2022-23 capital budget, was under expected costs.
In fact, Capriola said this project was actually $394,000 under the anticipated cost.

By re-allocating SHS AC funds for the bleachers, the town is able to address code and safety issues in the football stadium, which was built in 1968.

Demolition was expected to happen right away and the bleacher project set to begin in the spring of 2023.

For the minutes of the Nov. 28 Simsbury Board of Selectmen meeting, click on this link.

For details of the project, click on this link and scroll down to Pages 12-14.