At last night’s (Monday) meeting, the Carroll City Council broke its deadlock on the proposed Carroll Recreation Center project and approved a plan to go back to the drawing board to scale back the planned work. Bids received last month came in more than $1 million over the originally estimated $6.7 million construction costs, and the council had been unable to reach a consensus on what comes next. The options available to the council were: accept the full project, including upgrades to the west fitness room, for $8.965 million; approve the base bid only for $8.72 million; rebid just the HVAC and locker room portion of the project with an estimated $4.296 million cost; or rebid the deferred maintenance with a raised walking track at an estimated $6.654 million. Ward Four Councilwoman, Carolyn Siemann, says it is important to note the figures associated with rebidding the project are only approximations.
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The council then took final comments from community members on the project with three of the five people who spoke supporting the full project. Siemann proposed moving forward with just the base bid, which includes the addition of a third gym, a raised walking track and HVAC updates. At-Large Councilman, LaVern Dirkx, says nearly all the comments he has received regarding the Rec Center since their Feb. 14 meeting have been supportive of the project.
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The motion to move forward with the base bid only failed on a tie vote. Siemann then proposed accepting the base bid and utilizing value engineering, but that died due to lack of a second. A motion from Dirkx and seconded by Ward Three Councilman, Kyle Bauer, to reject the current bids and send the project back for additional design narrowly passed on a 4-2 vote with At-Large Councilwoman, JJ Schreck, and Ward One Councilman, Tom Bordenaro, voting against. Bauer clarifies what the new scope of the project will be.
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The estimated cost for the work described is $6.65 million dollars. The council directed staff to begin work with RDG Planning and Design to begin the process of scaling back the project and preparing to seek new bids. Full audio/video from Monday’s meeting can be found included below.
Discussion on Rec Center bids begins at 29:49
Spreadsheet of current bids/cost estimates shown at 40:00