Hurdle cleared for now in Jasper Gymnasium construction

The hurdle that tripped up the construction of the Jasper High School Gymnasium was revisited and cleared today with the passage of a common wage for the new construction. A committee of five individuals is required to meet and determine a common wage for public works projects over $250,000; the Jasper High School gymnasium is estimated to cost between $8 million and $10 million to complete.

The committee consisted of Gene Mehringer (industry representative), Mike Witte (private citizen representative), Assistant Superintendent Mike Hile (Greater Jasper Consolidated School Board appointee), and Associated Builders and Contractors President/CEO J.R. Gaylor (non-union trades representative). A representative for the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) was absent from the committee leaving one chair empty on the five person committee.

Attorney Art Nordhoff verified that notice of the wage hearing had been given in accordance with Indiana Open Door Law policy and that all representatives had been notified. Upon confirming this and waiting a few more minutes the board convened and started the hearing as a quorum was present despite the absence of a union representative.

Gaylor presented information for setting the common wage for the construction at non-union shop wages due to the majority of work hours in Dubois County construction being done by non-union labor. Gaylor stated that of the 163 contractors in Dubois County only three are union shops. He quoted many private and two public construction projects to support his assertion that the majority of work conducted in Dubois County is at non-union wages.

The common wage is a baseline that is established for contractors awarded the project to pay their employees. The committee is required to use the mode for calculations of the common wage. For example, if the numbers 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, and 5 were presented, the committee would be required to choose the number 2, as it is the mode of the numbers or occurs most often in the set.

Gaylor presented the mode of the common wages of the area according to his organization’s estimates. The committee was not presented with any other wages for Dubois County to consider for this project. A motion was made and passed unanimously to adopt the wages presented by Gaylor.

An advertisement requesting bids for the construction of the Jasper High School Gymnasium will be published this week.

According to Attorney Nordhoff the AFL-CIO could dispute the decision of the wage hearing.