MORGAN HILL
– City staff will seek direction from the City Council on how to
cut costs and find new sources of funds for construction of the new
aquatic center during the regular meeting Wednesday night.
MORGAN HILL – City staff will seek direction from the City Council on how to cut costs and find new sources of funds for construction of the new aquatic center during the regular meeting Wednesday night.
Bids came in 24 percent or $2 million, over estimates of $8.1 million for the project
The low bid, by Gonsalves & Stronk, is $10,130,913, with a high bid of $10,737,824 by Ausonio. In all, the city received four bids.
The total budget for the project, according to City Manager Ed Tewes, is $12.9 million.
The complex, at the southeast corner of Condit Road and Tennant Avenue, is scheduled to open May 28, 2004.
City staff met Monday with the aquatics subcommittee and the design team to discuss options for the project. Staff recommendation to the council is anticipated to be that the council award the contract to the low bidder – provided there is an opportunity for value engineering to reduce costs and opportunity for additional funding.
“We’re going to be looking at a variety of options, ways we can cut costs to the project,” said Mayor Dennis Kennedy, who sits on the aquatics subcommittee. “We had a meeting last Friday and we will be meeting (Monday).
“We have identified some things preliminarily that we can consider. For example, the complex has a lot of decorative lighting, the landscaping is very expensive, we have planned very creative things for the landscaping, using the Leeds concept, which is a green building concept, and we’re finding out that the initial costs for that are very high.”
Kennedy also said a stand-alone vending pagoda and some “very expensive” walls were being considered as candidates for value engineering.
“There are also some things we’d like to include in the project that were not in the basic design, like the ‘sprayground’ areas for toddlers and the surge pit,” Kennedy said. “So what I hope we will end up doing is to do both, value engineer some costs out of it and to look for additional funds.”
City Councilmember Larry Carr, who also sits on the aquatics subcommittee, said there are viable sources for additional funding for the project.
“There are other city pockets of money that might be looked at,” he said. “There are other parks dollars and dollars outside the RDA that might be the right ones to use. But it is clear we have to bring those costs down, yet at the same time, not cut this project so much that it’s not worth doing anymore.”
Tewes said all bidders were pre-qualified, and one of the requirements was that they had the staff and resources to mobilize quickly if they were awarded the bid.
“We will be talking to all bidders to try to determine why the bids were over the estimate, to what extent it could be attributed to the accelerated construction schedule, to what extent it could be attributed to the clarity of the package … and the cost and profit structure of the bidders,” Tewes said.
According to the staff report, if the council does not award the bid Wednesday night, the complex may not be completed by May 28, 2004.
Maintenance of the complex has been an issue.
“The council has said the city will operate this facility primarily in the spring and summer months when it will generate revenue that covers the cost of operations,” Tewes said. “There will be some months, likely in the fall and winter, when revenues would not cover the costs of operation. It is our hope to be able to enter into some lease or agreement with a non-profit foundation, the Aquatics Foundation, that would allow the foundation to operate the complex during those months.”
Prior to the aquatics complex discussion, the council will consider the formal purchase of a building at 16200 Vineyard Blvd. to be used as the new police station. The building was originally built for a printing company but never has been used for an extended period of time.
The police station project was initiated because the police station has outgrown its current facilities at the corner of Monterey Road and East Main Avenue. City officials have been looking into the possibilities for a new facility for more than a year.
The City Council will vote on a staff recommendation Wednesday to execute the lease and purchase agreements for the Vineyard Boulevard facility and construction management services for interior improvements.
The owners are asking $6.4 million for the building. Interior improvements are estimated at $1.813 million. The total cost, including funds set aside for contingencies is $9.45 million.
Financing of the new station is suggested as follows: $1.2 million would come from the police impact fund paid by developers, $1.7 million from a land sale of the city’s library site to the Redevelopment Agency, $4.3 million from the proceeds of certificates of participation debt for a total of $7.2 million. The report distributes the debt service equally between the general fund and the police impact fund – $141,000 each.
The new location on Vineyard would allow for indoor parking and would be close to the future site of the city’s corporation yard. It would take advantage of favorable interest rates and would cost less than a new station.
