by Michele Catahay

Guam - With the recent passage of legislation that would help move the construction of a new John F. Kennedy High School campus forward, International Bridge Corporation remains confident it would be able to obtain the financing within the 90-day period. IBC vice-president Miguel Bordallo says his company will be able to finance the construction of a new JFK campus before the time period required by law.

A recent bill was signed into law that would allow bond counsel to issue an unqualified opinion. Bordallo says a representative from his company will be going with the Guam Economic Development Authority to ensure financing is obtained. As for how IBC plans on constructing JFK, Bordallo says they stand ready for the challenge.

"We had a very detailed methodology for the construction that was laid out in our proposal and I believe that was probably one of the stronger points of the proposal and that's maybe why we ranked so high," he explained. "We've had experience with this type of facility. IBC did a facility of similar size with DoDEA when they first had their elementary and middle schools up in Andersen."

Bordallo says this project requires close coordination with the Government of Guam and his design team. If the contract is signed and the project is a go, IBC had planned to have its workers work in shifts to ensure the school is built in nine months.

"We plan on working multiple shifts with different sets of guys. A lot of people said it would be too expensive to run it this way, but manhours are manhours. It takes a number of manhours to construct the facility and breaking it up into two groups, there is no increase or acceleration," he said.

Last week, Guam Community Improvement Foundation president Tony Sgro told KUAM News that he had no plans to protest if an award is made. Bordallo says this is great news because IBC has been working on this project for a long time. As for how much it's going to cost GovGuam, he couldn't say because negotiations continue.

"As I had mentioned, we're still in negotiations," he said. "I can't reveal what the total costs will be because the numbers are still changing. As you know, the legislation capped the money available for JFK and we're working really hard with the government to make sure that everything is within those numbers."

In the meantime, Bordallo thanks the governor and the Guam Legislature for passing the bill, which would help speed up the process to build the campus. More importantly, he thanks the JFK stakeholders for pushing the issue. GovGuam officials have said that if all goes well, ground breaking for a new JFK campus could take place as early as September.