A company based in Union has been awarded a $579,000 contract to renovate the media centers in the four elementary schools in the Hopewell Valley Regional School District.
The Board of Education awarded the contract to M&M Construction Co. Inc., which was one of two bidders for the job.
Although the other bid of $537,300, which was submitted by Levy Construction Co. of Audubon, was lower than M&M Construction’s bid, it was rejected because the company did not identify one of the subcontractors, district administrators said.
The media centers at the Bear Tavern, Hopewell, Stony Brook and Toll Gate elementary schools will be upgraded as part of a $35.8 million bond referendum that was approved by Hopewell Valley voters in 2016.
Each media center will require a different amount of construction work, district officials said. Work is expected to be completed by October.
In all cases, new shelving and furniture have been ordered for the media centers so they will look more up-to-date, district officials said.
In other business, the board awarded a contract for $880,000 to QPI Electrical Co. of Levittown, Pa., to install emergency generators at each of the six schools in the district.
Although the emergency generators are not part of the bond referendum, district administrators decided to install them to ensure that critical systems will stay online during power outages.
The emergency generators will be installed at the Bear Tavern, Hopewell, Stony Brook and Toll Gate elementary schools, at the Timberlane Middle School and at Hopewell Valley Central High School.
QPI Electrical was the lowest bidder. Bids were also received from MJF Electrical Contracting, which bid $975,000 for the job, and Manor II Electric, which offered a bid of $1.07 million.