City expects bids to come in on budget

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- In making the decision to advertise for bids this past week, the New Ulm City Council had assurances from its architect that the trio of building projects funded by a half-percent city sales tax won't cost more than $11,731,000.

In order for that to happen, however, the base construction bid for the project can be no more than $10,192,000.

When the cost of furniture, fixtures and equipment, architectural and engineering consulting fees and related expenses and a 5 percent contingency fee are added, project costs total out at $11,731,000, the amount budgeted by the city for the three projects.

Rozeboom Miller Architects, in working with building committees for each project this summer, had come up with a solution to bringing the three projects to within the city's budget.

Parts of the construction that could be isolated as potential alternates were identified, and the individual building committees, working with the architects, prioritized the various alternates for each project on the basis of what absolutely needed to be included in the initial construction and what should be chosen in case bids came in below estimate, depending upon how much money was available. Other "alts" were designed as deducts in case bids came in higher than anticipated, and others were simply withdrawn from the project scope, to possibly be added later after the projects were completed.

After Rozeboom Miller had completed the design work and had submitted the plans to its estimators, those figures were run by John Heymann of Heymann Construction, acting as a consultant, to validate the result.

"So, on bid day, we're expecting a base bid of $10,192,000," Ted Rozeboom told the council last week.

When asked if he thought that was a reasonable expectation, Rozeboom replied, "Recently, in this area, mechanical and electrical bids have been coming in low (on other projects in southern Minnesota). The fact that we're in a recession and the 9/11 events indicate a good bid. There are very few projects in southern Minnesota that will 'stand' for a year like this one so we're optimistic."

However, he warned the council that it's going to be a complex bidding process because of all the alternates, construction firms will be asked to bid upon.

"Usually, we see the base bids within 5 percent of each other, they'll run pretty close, but the alts can be all over the place. And there are a lot of alts in there, $840,000 worth is a lot," Rozeboom said.

After the bids are opened on December 11, Rozeboom noted, the architects and city staff will start the process of sifting through all the bids and determining what if any alternates can be included in the construction package for each project. With over 100 alternates to consider, this will take some time, Rozeboom said.

The architect told the council he expects the most variance in bidding to be on alternates because "that's the area where bidders will expect to make some money."

Because of the alternates, the firm with the lowest base bid probably won't be the overall bid winner.

"It's not impossible, however, that the low base bidder will also have the overall low bid," he said.

Despite the numerous alternates, Rozeboom was able to give the council a little picture of what will or won't be a part of the combined construction projects.

The Fairgrounds Community Center will have two functional ice rinks.

"We never really considered the possibility of building only one rink," Rozeboom said.

However, some areas associated with the rinks may not be finished off, such as the area in which the Zamboni is stored and the concession area.

Most obvious deduct from the activities court area in the remodeled Vogel Arena will be the curtains which would divide the courts and prevent intrusion on the running track.

Rozeboom said the curtains aren't being included because of their cost--$85,000.

"All the hardware for hanging them will be there, however, so when the city can afford it, the curtains can be easily installed, probably for free by the vendor," Rozeboom explained.

There will be no acoustics panels in the performing arts/dining room addition to the Senior Center.

"We're dealing with the acoustics by just the shape of the room," Rozeboom said.

In the final analysis, Rozeboom said, the referendum projects weren't downgraded in scope by efforts to bring the projects in within budget.

"Most items not included can be done at another time when the city has the resources," he said.