DUCKWATER -- Nye County school trustees recently accepted a $16.3 million bid from B&H Construction Co. to build the new Floyd Elementary School in Pahrump.

The school will be built on 12 acres of land donated by America West Homes on Susquehanna and Jane Street, about a mile east of Terrible's Lakeside Casino. Estimates made during school board discussions last spring were the construction would cost roughly $12 million to $13 million. The fifth elementary school in town will house 680 students. The elementary classes are a rapidly growing part of the school district with a 6 percent annual increase in enrollment.

B&H Construction, of Las Vegas, was recommended as the most responsive contractor and low bidder among four firms. Nye County Maintenance and Operations Supervisor Bob Whimpey said B&H Construction built the Rosemary Clarke Middle School gym, the Manse Elementary School multi-purpose room, the Pahrump Library and the Pahrump Valley High School auto shop.

The B&H base bid was $15.2 million, a school with 22 core classrooms. Three alternate bids, of $364,000, $385,000 and $421,000, respectively, will add two classrooms apiece, for a total of 28 classrooms. The building will also include a music room, special education room and resource room. A final alternate bid, of $85,000, is for landscaping and playground structures.

Bids with all the alternates ranged up to a high of nearly $18.7 million.

One bidder, Commercial Contracting, didn't have a certificate of eligibility for a bidder's preference for paying sales tax to the state for five years. As a result, 5 percent was added to its bid.

Commercial Contracting had submitted the low base bid of $14.9 million, which was raised to $15.7 million after the 5 percent add-on. The bid with alternates came out to $16.2 million, again, just below B&H Construction, but with the 5 percent add-on their combined bid came out to just over $17 million.

Whimpey confirmed Commercial Contracting filed a protest over the acceptance of the B&H bid. He said lawyers are trying to iron out the problem.

The school district also has to obtain a building permit and go through the appropriate site checks by Charles Abbott and Associates under a new state law. It may be a month or two before the school district can break ground, he said.

The school will be a permanent, modular structure constructed off-site, Whimpey said. The completion date is June 2008, a critical date, after which the district will have to decide the attendance zone, bus routes and other issues, he said.

Two of the contractors bidding on the project showed up for the school board meeting, Superintendent Rob Roberts said, which was held in remote Duckwater, about 130 miles northeast of Tonopah and about 300 miles from Pahrump.

The Nye County school board decided months ago to have rotating board meetings every month in different towns of the far-flung district including Duckwater, Gabbs and Round Mountain.

"The bids were opened here in town, so all the contractors were here for the opening," Roberts said. The public bid opening was Sept. 5.

In another matter, trustees accepted a bid of $382,462 from Hardy Construction Inc., of Las Vegas, to construct new grandstands at Pahrump Valley High School. The new bleachers will have regular seating for 1,621, along with 14 wheel chair spaces, 14 companion seats and an eight-by-30 foot press box with a camera platform on top.

Hardy Construction submitted the lowest of five bids ranging up to $495,285.

School board trustees last spring voted to spend up to $400,000 for the new bleachers at Pahrump Valley High. Whimpey said the old bleachers were unsafe and only seated 600 fans.

Last July school board trustees rejected an earlier round of grandstand construction bids ranging from $431,000 to $441,000 which they said were too high. The job includes demolishing the existing grandstands.

In another school matter, members of a construction committee will decide whether to recommend building a new high school or add onto the existing Pahrump Valley High School during a meeting at 2 p.m. today (Sept. 26) at the Nye County School District southern region office.