OXFORD – The slow economy has been tough on the construction industry, but that is good news for the Oxford Academy and Central School District. It means the school will get more bang for its buck on its current capital project.

“The contractors are hungry right now,” Oxford Superintendent Randy Squier told members of the district’s school board last week as they prepared to award contracts for the $4.65 million phase I project. The project – which will focus largely on work needed at the Middle School – was approved by district voters in late 2009 and received the New York State Education Department’s stamp of approval in January. The project went out to bid shortly there after. Those bids were opened on March 11, and presented to the board on Tuesday by representatives from the district’s construction management firm, C&S Companies, and architects, the Bernier Carr & Associates.

The results are a positive development in a four year process which has been fraught with controversy and set backs. The base bid total was $2,352,296 – more than $1.35 million below the project’s $3.7 million construction budget. (The remaining $944,000 of the total project cost has been allocated for incidental expenses and soft costs.)