He said, however, contractors active in rural Arizona have assured him they can do the work and will have the needed employees. For the past 16 months, Geiger's office has overseen inspections of 1,210 schools in 202 districts. Bids on much of the other work will start going out in early June. In January, the Facilities Board hired 10 companies to work as construction managers. They will be assigned to regions of the state where they will oversee the school repairs contracts.
Architectural designs are in the final stages for much of the school repairs.
The program started in 1998, but the bulk of the actual repairs will start this summer. All of the work is supposed to be finished by mid-2003. But Geiger wants to avoid making the bundled contracts so large that they shut out the smaller local companies. Another concept is to team larger companies with the smaller companies in rural communities. Despite Geiger's assurances, Jones and his contractor members doubt Arizona will avoid worker shortages or meet the 2003 deadline.