By Pauline Masson –
The board of aldermen (BOA) approved a contract last Tuesday with Primary Concrete to build the much anticipated Jeffrey White Memorial Skate Park at a cost of $366,000 with certain contingencies in the contract.
If the city cannot build the park with the available funds, the contingency says the city can back out of the approved contract.
Based on a total cost of $481,144, the City of Pacific received a federal Land and Water Conservation Fund ( LWCF) grant of $240,000 – one-half of the total cost to build the skate park – in October 2024.
The construction contract approved last week covers only the concrete work on the plan. The city has yet to finalize plans to excavate the site, bring in fill dirt and compact the ground for the application of the concrete.
The decision to approve the contract, contingent on the city’s ability to complete the unplanned work with the available funds, followed a lengthy discussion during the Jan 6, BOA meeting.
The plan for the project is only half completed, which worried Public Works Commissioner Bob Brueggemann. And the promise of volunteers to perform excavation was too vague for Mr, Brueggemann and Alderman Ed Gass.
At a previous meeting Mayor Heather Filley, who was not present at the meeting, said that some local contractors had offered free labor to provide the excavation. Mr. Brueggemann said he did not know which local firms had offered free work, he had not been provided a list of the volunteers.
Acting Board President Scott Lesh, who chaired the meeting, voiced concerns about the ground preparation.
“In our last meeting with SWT and Scott Rundy, I asked him how much fill, and he said 1,000 cubic yards,” Mr. Lesh said. “That need’s a lot of compaction. And Mr. Brueggemann has stated that the compaction is not something that we have the equipment for the city to do.”
Mr. Brueggemann said he had other concerns.
“To date, I haven’t seen any 100 percent completion of any kind of actual plan,” he said. “The first thing I ask is, how are we going to bid on something that we don’t have civil plans on?”
Economic Development Director Tiffany Wilson said the plan was only half completed because SWT, the skate park designer, had said they like to work with the contractors who design skate parks.
“When we put the RFP out it was for a contractor who had experience with skate parks, so that they can get on board and help them finalize the design and then they put out the final construction document,” she said.
Mr. Brueggemann said it sounded like the city was doing a design-build type project.
“But for us to either hire a contractor or ask for volunteers to do the work, we need to have a civil plan so we know what we’re expecting of them.”
Alderman Ed Gass said the city really needed a contractor and an engineer to prepare the scope of work, and get it right.
“Otherwise you’re going to have a failed project,” he said.
Mr. Gass also said it was unclear in the documents he saw, who was responsible for the excavation. Ms. Wilson said the city was responsible for the excavation.
Both Mr. Brueggemann and Alderman Gass said the city should hire an engineer to oversee the excavation and ground preparation and hire a contractor to do the actual earth movement.
Mr. Lesh said there was uncertainty about the project.
“What if we are not able to secure our contractor, get the work done in-house, and we have a contract signed with this bidder,” he said.
Mr. Cleeve said he had looked at what was budgeted, what the primary concrete bid was, what the city had to pay to SWT Design and Contract, and (the project) was under budget by $31,320.
Alderman Debbie Kelley questioned how the $31,000 could be spend and still comply with the grant specifications..
“If there is $31,000 there, are we eligible to receive that as a city to use for our workers, our supplies,” she said. “Is that money available to be used if it wasn’t spent on this bidder for the project?”
Mr. Cleeve reiterated that he had examined the project costs so far and there was $31,000 left.
“My question is, if it wasn’t originally stated in the grant, are we eligible to use those funds towards this park if the city needs to buy supplies.” Ms Kelley said
City Attorney Stephanie Carr said she would have to review the grant agreement to see if how the funds were to be used was included. She suggested the city include a contingency in the contract.
“I would suggest a contingency in the contract,” she said. If construction plans were done and the cost was just too much the city could go ahead and back out of it.
Mr. Lesh noted that October is the city’s final deadline with LWCF grant but it does appear that the city has time to work out the details. He also noted that if
everything works out as planned the park could open in July.
With some unanswered questions on how the city would proceed with excavation, in a 6-0 vote the BOA unanimously approved the contract with a contingency to protect the city.
The photograph above included in the Primary Contract proposal for the park, eliminated the suggestion that the small pavilion that has traditionally been used for children’s birthday parties and other family gatherings could “share” the pavilion with the skaters.
It is the only pavilion in the city park that is available on a first-come, first-serve basis with no reservation required and no cost to use.
In the rendering included in the approved plan the picnic tables have been removed from the pavilion. The promised secondary entrance that circled the pavilion providing skaters with access the ramp between the pavilion and the skate park bowl is also eliminated in this rendering.
When citizens attended a public meeting to gather input from local residents about what they’d like to see in a proposed skate park in April 2022, the location of the park had not been selected. The public never saw that the skate park was absorbing the children’s pavilion.
The city later identified a site for the skate park on a parcel near the Orleans Street entrance to Liberty Field, but later repurposed that site to Klance Staging to store their equipment trailers when not in use.
The rendering pictured above, included with the bid from Tuesday’s meeting, doesn’t include everything we’ll see at the skatepark. There will be a sidewalk to bypass the pavilion, picnic tables will still be in the pavilion, and a memorial sign on the concrete slab exiting the pavilion to enter the skatepark will pay tribute to Jeffery White and help prevent skating in the pavilion.
Tyler,
Where is this written?
There is a line on page 7 of the RFP for the skatepark that says:
“The top level of the Skatepark features an existing pavilion that leads towared a drop-in quarter pipe.”
This appears to make the pavilion part of the skatepark.
If what you say has been acted on by the board and is detailed in some official document, please tell me what it is so I can request it from the city clerk.
So, already additional costs to be added to the project? Why would this not be in the original RFP? Sounds like another city projects with lots of change orders, that ends up making the project end way over budget. Seems to happen a lot in this city. Certainly things will come up that have to be changed, but awarding a contract before the plans are done, especially when we obviously know there are going to be additional expenses doesn’t seem to be very fiscally responsible. If the contract is only for the concrete work , who is paying for the ramps/pipes that aren’t concrete?
Don’t worry about it, they spent $ 93,000 in ‘phony’ change orders on Herbie’s albatross and an additional $ 12,000 a month. for eighteen months. paying Navigate to oversee the project when nothing was accomplished. They will find the money when they meet in ‘ double secret’ closed session.