North Greene discusses building projects

By Editor | March 24, 2026 |

By Carmen Ensinger

North Greene School District has several building projects that will be taking shape this summer, including the construction of a new concession stand/bathroom at the football field and a new bus garage at the Unit Office. Also, on the horizon is the replacement of the driver’s ed shed at the high school. These projects were discussed at the March 18 school board meeting.
However, the big project for the district is the concession stand/bathrooms at the football field. The old structures were demolished at the end of last year so work could begin as soon as possible. The district has been in discussion of the new structure for more than a year, finally deciding to go with a metal structure from R and E Buildings in White Hall at the end of last year.
With the structure approved, the board must now approve all of the other things that go into building a new building, such as plumbing, heating, concrete, etcetera.
Board member Casey Nell, who is Chairman of the Building Committee, said there were two bids received for both the plumbing and concrete work.
The two bids for the plumbing came from Lloelke Plumbing from Jerseyville and Henson Robinson of Springfield.
In their bid, Lloelke gave two different options to choose from – one with the plumbing coming up through the floor at a cost of $50,610 and the other coming through the wall at a cost of $51,165.
“Vance (Dirksmeyer, Maintenance Director) said that the way the concession stand is set up and with the maintenance room dividing the bathrooms, that he would prefer the option of having the plumbing coming through the wall,” Nell said. “Plus, should anything ever happen, you don’t have to bust up the concrete to make any repairs.”
Henson Robinson also had two options, but their two options were higher than Lloelke’s, coming in at $54,205 and $58,070.
The two concrete bids came from Ballard Brothers and Nate Haverfield. There was a huge difference in the amount of the bids. Ballard Brothers bid came in at $27,000 while Haverfield’s bid came in at $16,700 with an additional $1,200 for sealer for a total of $17,900.
Nell said both bids included labor, materials, sight prep work and rock and that he was comfortable with the lower bid.
“I would say I’m comfortable going with it because at the end of the day we have a little bit of contingency money built into it that even if we need a little more rock or something, we’re good,” he said.
Nell said he wanted to stress the importance of the schedule of this project at this point.
“I don’t think that we are saying that our backs are against the wall, but it is going to be tight to get this finished by the start of football season,” he said. “We are still outstanding as far as the electrical is concerned.”
The board unanimously approved Lloelke for the plumbing and Nate Haverfield for the concrete work.
In other building projects, the board discussed their new bus garage that is being planned to be relocated to an area east of the Unit Office.
“We are funding this through Capitol Project funds and we have the money to do the project this summer,” Nell said. “R and E was the low bid with $106,000. That would be to relocate the bus garage out here. We are getting some quotes on rock and some of the other stuff. We need to get on their schedule if that is the route we want to take.”
Included in this estimated $250,000 would be the structure itself which would be large enough to accommodate all of the district buses with two additional spaces added for future expansion.
The structure would be enclosed on the north side and the buses would back in from the south. It would involve a huge rock pad of about a foot of rock to build it up enough so that when it rains the water would not get in.
On the west end there would be a small enclosed area, maybe 12×24, with a concrete floor that would be heated and cooled. This area would be used for storage of records and things like that and for use by the bus drivers.
Still needed to be dealt with is the moving of the fuel tanks and the moving of utilities from the road. There would be power to each stall and allow each bus to be plugged in in the winter.
Estimated cost was around 250,000 total for the bus garage relocation. That would include a building with some additional space in it. Cover a wall on the north side, the buses would be able to pull in it would be facing the south. They would back in and then pull out. It would involve a big rock pad. There would be a small building maybe 12×24 off the west end that would be enclosed and have a concrete floor and would be heated and cooled for storage of records or anything like that that the bus drivers would need. We would still have to do something on the fuel tanks. Then we have to do something about getting utilities get pushed in from the street.
That would allow all buses to get under cover and plugged in in the winter. There would be power to each stall.
Still another project being considered is the replacement of the bus driver’s shed at the high school. This would also be replaced using Capitol Project funds.
“We don’t have any numbers on replacing that yet,” Nell said. “But basically, we would be replacing it with the same size metal structure. It may get moved to the front a bit, but it will solve some of our storage problems.”