OCEAN PARK – Ocean Beach School District (OBSD) has given the North Beach Public Development Authority (NBPDA) until Jan. 10 to come up with answers the district needs before it can consider signing on with the upstart water company for fire suppression flow services at the newly reconstructed Ocean Park School.

At this point, if the school district does decide to hook up with the NBPDA, it will be at some short-term monetary loss from bond funds used for the school construction projects.

At a meeting with the contractor, R. G. and B. Construction, LLC., last Tuesday, OBSD Superintendent Tom Lockyer was told that work toward the construction of the water tank originally planned for the site needs to begin now, with Lockyer okaying the commission of shop drawings for the tank, at a cost of $12,000. That sum is factored into the amount the district would spend on the tank, upwards of $300,000, as part of the construction of the school.

However, if the district decides to go with the NBPDA – which has offered to build a community water tank that the school could hook up to – the district will have spent the $12,000 for essentially nothing.

“The contractor had to take their next step,” said OBSD school board Chairman Ed Guelfi Tuesday morning. “It (the money) didn’t get thrown away. We’re just on a progression of steps on (the construction of) our own water tank.”

Guelfi reiterated the need for that phase of the construction process to stay on track, as the school will not be able to open in August without fire flow – which is also required during the building phase.

Guelfi said the school board will be holding a workshop Jan. 10 to discuss factors related to moving the students to and from the different buildings and the accelerated timeline of the construction. At that meeting, they plan to hear back from the NBPDA, whose president, R.D. Williams, told the board at its Dec. 20 meeting that NBPDA was to meet with local banks regarding funding last Wednesday. Guelfi said the district still needs answers to specific questions.

“We need them to have in writing that they’ve got the money to do this,” he said, adding that a fee scale for the services was also a necessity. “I’m not going to sign a contract and not know what it’ll cost. We need some assurances that they will get them done, and thus far we haven’t got that.”

Williams said Tuesday afternoon that he plans on having those answers for the board at the meeting.

“Yes, that’s what our goal is. That’s what were striving to do for the school district,” he said. “We plan to do deliver to them the answers to their questions.”

But it wouldn’t be just be the $12,000 that the district would lose if it decides to scrap the tank from their construction plans. To make a change order removing it, Guelfi said of the $300,000 budgeted for that portion, “I doubt that we’d get half of that back.”

But he added that if it looks like they will recoup that money with long-term savings from hooking up to the new water company, rather than building their own tank, then it would be worth it.