Greater Jasper Schools High School Gym construction hits legal snag

Dr. Jerrill Vandeventer issued a press release Monday stating that the Southwestern Indiana Building and Construction Trades Council has filed a restraining order against the Greater Jasper Consolidated Schools and the Common Wage Committee in reference to the construction of the new High School Gymnasium.

The wage determination committee meeting was held October 20th at 10 am in the Dubois County Courthouse Annex to fix wages for the building of the new gymnasium on the campus of Jasper High School. The committee is made up of: two representatives for taxpayers, Jerry Apple and Pete Mehringer, Mike Hile, Assistant Superintendent for Greater Jasper School Corporation, Kenny Overton, representing the AFL/CIO , and Felisha Minnik, representing Associated Builders and Contractors.

After prevailing wages were presented by Steve Wilson of AFL/CIO and Minnik, Minnik made a motion to accept wages submitted by Associated Builders and Contractors. The committee voted 3 to 1 to accept those wages with Jerry Apple of the taxpayers representatives abstaining.

[quote]Overton pointed out to the committee at that time that the prevailing wage at the current Southridge High School expansion were the wages recommended by the State Federation of Labor.[/quote]

Overton pointed out to the committee at that time that the prevailing wage at the current Southridge High School expansion were the wages recommended by the State Federation of Labor. He pointed out several other recent construction projects with the same prevailing wage averages.

Minnick on the other hand based her numbers on averages of all the wages of local contractors which as an average were lower than the recommended wages from the State Federation of Labor.

[box]To determine the common construction wage the committee is given series of wages for each position and the mode is chosen as the prevailing wage. As an example if the following wages were given to the committee, $19, $18, $23, $20, $24, $23; the mode would be $23 as it appears the most on the list of wages.[/box]

The committee chose Minnick’s wage mode, the lower of the two.

After the meeting, Overton, who represents labor union interests stated that he was not satisfied with the outcome and that there could be litigation due to the wages presented by Associated Builders and Contractors being voted as prevailing pay for labor.

A restraining order has now been filed and what effect this will have on the construction timeline has yet to be answered. The matter has been turned over to School Attorney Art Nordhoff.

According to him, the cost for the new gymnasium is being estimated at between $9 and $10 million. The total cost is being paid by German American Insurance as the insuring agent of the old gym, which experienced a roof collapse on May 2nd due to the weight of standing water and other debris from recent storms.

Matt Crane co-authored portions of this article