Basement issue snags rebuilding of Silver City schoolhouse

What contractor should be chosen? Should there be a full basement or a partial, or a crawl space? One story or split-level?

Those are simple questions when it comes to putting up any building, but they are enough to stop work when it comes to the reconstruction of the Silver City Schoolhouse, which burned down in July 2004.

Donna Squires, field-claims manager for Alternative Service Concepts of Sparks, the company handling the insurance claim for Lyon County, told the Silver City Advisory Board on Tuesday that a subcontractor will be chosen by April 21 to do the foundation and excavation.

"Hopefully, we'll have prices for the foundation and excavation," she said. "The general contractor is trying to find smaller contractors to handle the excavation and foundation."

Squires said she hopes work can begin shortly after that. However, the contractor has not committed to completely building the new center.

The general contractor the insurance company is working with is John Enco Construction of Reno, which, she said, offered a bid of about $400,000 based on 1993 plans of the old building. Two other bids were also offered.

The insurance company rejected a bid of $800,000 submitted to the county by Reyman Brothers of Reno, based on plans by Cathexes Inc., originally chosen to design the new building.

Those plans included a finished basement and Squires said the insurance company was not prepared to pay for a new basement. "I think we'll have enough to OK the single-level design," Squires said.

The basement would add about 1,300 square feet to the building and would have power and heat, Squires said. It would have a concrete floor and house the furnace and electrical panel and hot-water tank and plumbing.

The fire that destroyed the historic schoolhouse, built in 1867, on July 7, 2004, began after Lyon County Public Works employees used soldering irons to connect copper pipes to new air conditioners.

Either the torches or the hot pipes started the fire, investigators said.

Squires said the insurance company also received bids of about $400,000 and $450,000. Plans from those bids still have to be approved by the Comstock Historic District and the Lyon County Building Department. The initial bid by Reyman Brothers was OK'd by the historic district and building department.

The delays have frustrated the Silver City community.

"We'd like to see some equipment there before the second anniversary of the fire," said Theo McCormick, board chairman.

• Contact reporter Karen Woodmansee at kwoodmansee@nevadaappeal.com or 882-2111 ext. 351.