Estimated costs come down for CTC’s new building or renovation proposals

This article was funded by LebTown donors as part of our Civic Impact Reporting Project.

Costs for proposed renovations or new construction at the Lebanon County Career & Technology Center building are down $6.74 million to $15.2 million from earlier estimates, Beers + Hoffman architecture principal Scott Shonk told the school’s joint operating committee Tuesday.

At its March meeting, JOC members had asked Beers + Hoffman to find cost-cutting measures among four proposals that had ranged from estimates of $84.64 million to $123.26 million.

“What we did was take a look at what was presented in the study, and now we’ve added a box to the side with updated costs,” Shonk told the committee. “I’m just going to say right now the updated costs are lower than what we had last year.”

The new cost estimates include three of the four initial options, starting at $94.87 million.

“We went back from scratch and started over again with these estimates,” John Michel, director of pre-construction for Fidevia, partner to Lancaster’s Beers + Hoffman for the project. “When these were done almost a year ago, the market was such that it was increasing, every bid opening was up from the last. We’ve since moved into a period where pricing has actually relaxed.”

Beers + Hoffman trimmed some costs by using less brick on exteriors for the proposals, Shonk said, and tightened some “soft costs.”

“The bottom line is that Option B is the plan where we’re going to be rebuilding what we’re going to be calling Wing A and Wing B on the end of Wing C,” Shonk said. “What was previously a $95 million number is going down to $79.5, and that’s with the cost escalator.”

ELCO representative Jean Pierre Santos expressed concerns on March 17 that holding off for lower costs would lead to delays, with inflation pushing costs back up. But Michel said the new estimates include escalators for expected costs for 2028, and they’re still lower than the original numbers.

Option E would rebuild those three wings into a two-story piece, at an estimated cost of $93 million, down from an initial estimate of $100 million, Shonk said. Option F, all-new construction on its own footprint next to the current building, preventing disruption of CTC classes, is now estimated at $116.5 million including escalators for 2028 construction, down from $123 million, he said.

Square footage on the three design options are unchanged, he said.

“We just kind of went through from the start and without a lot of change, this is where we ended up,” Michel said. “This is what we feel the current numbers are.”

Also Tuesday, the JOC voted 6-0 to forward the CTC’s new articles of agreement and the CTC’s 2026-27 budget to its six member school districts.

The committee approved the $9.21 million proposed budget without changes from the proposal presented in March, said administrative director Charles Benton. Both the articles of agreement and budget go to the six districts for final adoption at the JOC’s May 19 meeting.

The six districts would contribute a total of $6.77 million to the CTC for 2026-27. Those contributions, minus vocational education subsidies to each district, are:

• Annville-Cleona – $586,596
• Cornwall-Lebanon – $1.82 million
• ELCO – $1.02 million
• Lebanon – $1.38 million
• Northern Lebanon – $762,722
• Palmyra – $1.2 million

Also Tuesday, the JOC noted that plumbing, heating and AC student Aubrey Miller, a Palmyra High School senior, and landscape and horticulture student Jaydrien Matias, a Northern Lebanon High School senior, are April Rotary students of the month.