The NAFRS Joint Powers Board held a special meeting late yesterday afternoon to discuss and vote on a resolution regarding the Fire Facility. As reported last week, the remodel bids came in too high and too little for a complete project. Using a Construction Manager, they created 23 bid packages, of those only 11 were bid on. In just two of those bid categories, Carpentry and Electric, the cost was $300,000 more than estimated. The Facilities committee met last week and recommended rejecting the bids and to re-bid the project with a General Contractor. Construction Manager Steve Underdahl, of ProCon, and Architect Dave Medin attributed the low bid turnout and high numbers to the strong construction market. Administrator Martig added, “you (speaking of contractor) have to provide your own performance bond, you have to have your
own insurance… a lot of times if it’s the smaller contractors, a lot of times they work through a General Contractor and they carry all that stuff for them”. Facilities Chair Jessica Peterson White commented, “my understanding as to the original reason for doing it in separate bid packages was that we hope to get more local contractors bidding. The most local bid that we got was ProCon in Faribault”. Martig added, “history does show that, in some cases, you do end up with more local contractor work when you do it directly, or through a Construction Manager/agent, because if you get a General Contractor they may be out of the Twin Cities and have their own crews that they always work with, you might not always get the local work”. The vote was unanimous to reject the bids and move on with a General Contractor. Underdahl’s contract will be terminated. Mayor Glenn Switzer commented that they need to start considering a Plan C should the numbers come in too high again. Dundas Administrator John McCarthy commented this morning, “it would be nice to know if there’s any wiggle room that might be available from all of the entities, if there is any wiggle room and if there isn’t then we’ll probably want to, I think, try to find out what the alternative is to the process. Do we go back and redesign, do we start all over again from scratch, so where do we go?”. Rural representative Kevin Estrem said if the project goes over the $4.2 million budget, the Townships will have a real issue with it as they are already stretched to their limit. The next move is a Northfield Council vote tonight to reject the bids, then to advertise for bids on March 21st with bid opening on April 12th. With a General Contractor, they are obligated to take the lowest responsible bid, regardless of where the Contractor is from. If all goes well, construction could start May 7th. 4 – Bid Tabulation 5 – Bid Analysis
Nfld Council hears implementation of City ID
Northfield Council will hold the special meeting tonight to formally reject the fire facility bids and then have a work session that will include information on implementation of a City ID card. We’ll have more on this tomorrow morning with Administrator Martig at 7:20.
Township hold annual meetings and some vote
Townships across the State are holding their annual meetings, many of them also opting to hold their elections. I have a list of local Townships holding elections and their contact information HERE. Check your Township Hall for open poll times and meeting times.
