WINONA, Minn. – The Winona School Board is casting nets widely for ideas to rescue its plans to air-condition two 1930s-era grade schools. Recently opened bids for the project were $5 million to $8 million higher than expected and had to be rejected. The Board had only $16 million available in line-of-credit funding. What to do? The Board has reached out to consultant Jeff Seeley, of Ehlers & associates, about financial options. Paul Aplikowski, the project manager from Wold Architects, has told the Board that a possibility is may be to split the project. This would soliciting bids separately for Jefferson school and for Washington-Kosciusko school.
