Adding an Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant ramp to the Tamaqua Area High School cafeteria will cost $314,000.

The district plans to use stimulus money and another grant to cover the project.

Members of the school board’s finance committee voted Tuesday night to recommend approval of a contract to begin work on the project.

If approved during next week’s regular board meeting, the project will be completed during the upcoming school year.

The cafeteria does not currently have a ramp which disabled students could use to exit the school in an emergency. Currently, those students have to go through the halls to another exit.

“This allows us to promote the safety and well-being of our students,” said Stephen Toth, Assistant Superintendent for Tamaqua Area School District.

The district originally received a $300,000 estimate for the project three years ago. The sole bidder, Bognet Inc., Hazleton, submitted a bid of $314,000.

The bid was closer to the original estimate than expected, administrators said.

“With the cost of things we expected it would be much higher,” said Superintendent Ray Kinder Jr.

The district has a $60,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency which is meant for school safety. The rest of the project will be funded from federal stimulus money.

The district also recently learned that it will receive additional, recurring funding from the state budget, which was in early July, more than a week after the deadline.

Tamaqua received an additional $1,817,326 million in the state budget. The district’s budget, passed on time, included a 4.8% school property tax increase.

At the time, the board and administration knew that Gov. Tom Wolf was proposing a funding increase. But based on past experience, they thought it was unlikely the increase would be passed, Kinder said.

Board President Larry Wittig said that if the board had known the funding would be approved, they might have avoided the tax increase.

“But there was no way of knowing that,” he said.