Lincoln University curators approved two construction contracts Thursday, spending $966,000.
The board awarded $351,000 to Innovative Masonry Restoration, of Kansas City, Kansas, to do brick and stonework tuckpointing, repair expansion joints and large cracks, paint wood trim and clean masonry at Founders, Memorial, Young, Schweich and Stamper halls.
IMR submitted the lowest of the two bids received last month.
"This is a very specialized type of project, so there were not many bidders," Sheila Gassner, LU's executive director for Facilities and Planning, told curators. "We've received very good references for them."
The work will begin immediately and is to be finished by Nov. 1.
"We want to make sure our buildings last longer," Gassner said.
GBH Builders of Jefferson City - already doing repairs and renovations in Young Hall - won the second contract Thursday for $615,000.
"This is to basically renovate all of the existing restrooms in Founders Hall, Martin Luther King Hall," Gassner said, "add a gender-neutral restroom on the bottom, theater level of Martin Luther King Hall."
She said the restrooms have not had any repairs for many years and will get new fixtures, new toilet petitions, new interior finishes, new walls, ceilings and floors.
The project is to begin immediately and be finished by Dec. 1, 2016 - and the contract requires the work to be staggered, so that restrooms continue to be available while others are being rebuilt.
"These are the last two projects from the $4 million we received last year from House Bill 19," Gassner said, citing a bonding bill lawmakers passed a year ago to pay for repair projects at colleges, universities and other public facilities.
Gassner's May 16 memo on 10 different projects was shared with the curators Tuesday and reported roofing projects already are finished at the LU Power Plant and Elliff, Young and Founders halls.
That report also noted the LU-Jefferson City Parks and Recreation Wellness Center Project is about 20 percent complete and on target for use next year.
Renovations to the President's Residence, 601 Jackson St., are about 97 percent complete, she reported. President Kevin Rome's family moved into the home at the end of April.
Although used for some special occasions, the house originally built by Jefferson City businessman Hugh Stephens in 1913 - and acquired by Lincoln about 50 years ago - had been unoccupied since 1999, when a build-up of water and mold in the basement forced then-LU President David Henson and his family to move.
Gassner's report said the Young Hall renovations are about 65 percent complete, while construction of the Small Ruminant Building at Busby Farm is expected to be finished by the end of June.
The Martin Hall renovation was almost 20 percent complete when Gassner wrote her report last month. Begun in March, it is targeted to be finished by August so it again can be used as a residence hall.
About 15 percent complete was the renovation of some 2,800 square feet of the Leslie Boulevard center for use as a Marketing Design Center.
Still in the planning stage is the tennis courts reconstruction project. Lincoln received a $75,000 grant from the state Natural Resources department's Land and Water Conservation Fund, with an LU match of $125,000 needed. Gassner said Jefferson City's Parks and Recreation department committed $250,000-$300,000 toward the project to expand the current three courts to a total of six to eight.
And, she said, Lincoln applied for a second DNR grant of $150,000, in April and should know by the end of June if that application was successful.
Rome told the News Tribune there's no connection between the Yvonne Hoard Tennis Courts on the northwest corner of Lafayette and East Dunklin streets and LU Curators' decision last month to cancel the tennis team.
"The tennis courts are for public use, and they've been for public use," he said. "Our tennis team didn't even use those courts because they weren't usable.
"Our commitment is still to the community, making sure the community has a place to play tennis."
Another challenge to the tennis program, Rome said, was the lack of students interested in playing competitive, intercollegiate tennis.