by Mary Wilson
Original plans to the Grandview Police Department secured
access and storage, approved by 77% of voters in August 2014, are being
modified due to bids for the project coming in substantially over budget. For
many years, according to Chief Charles Iseman, GVPD has seen a need for
increased security in the back parking lot of the police station.
“In 2011, we started making capital improvement requests,”
said Iseman. “There was no funding there so it never got approved. We were
fortunate in 2014 to have the voters approve the bond election for the public
safety and parks projects.”
In December 2014, Grandview Board of Aldermen approved a
contract with SFS Architecture, who began working on the project design. When
the project went out to bid, only two were received and both were rejected.
“The bids were not even close to what we had estimated or
what was in the budget,” said Iseman.
Iseman returned to SFS Architecture to see if cost-saving
adjustments to the project could be made. Also, after discussions with Public
Works Director Dennis Randolph, it was decided to break the project into four
distinct areas.
“Rather than have one contractor do all the work, the bids
that come in might be a little more competitive,” said Iseman.
The four project areas are now the building itself, the
fencing and gates, pavement and video surveillance. In addition to the changes
in building material and labor costs, Chad Bard with SFS Architecture stated
that having the rebid with a longer advertisement period will possibly bring in
additional contractor interest.
The original plan called for two access points to the secure
police parking area, including a new drive that exited onto Jones Avenue. That
option has been removed from the project. The primary access to the lot will
now run parallel to Freedom Park and the Depot Museum. A section of
black-coated chain-link fence was added to divide the drive from the park.
“The chain-link will blend in nicely with the black, wrought-iron
style in the security fencing around the entire lot,” said Bard.
Iseman added that there are plans to re-stripe the area to
focus pedestrian traffic away from the police access point. A motorized gate
with keycard entry will provide access to the secured area for officers.
The storage building roof was also looked at for cost-saving
measures. The slope of the roof was decreased enough to provide for a different
material but offering the same look to the previously approved plans.
“It’s about 2000 square-feet less than originally planned,”
said Bard. “That will save some money.”
Another significant cost-saving measure is to go with a
different material for the outside of the storage building that will match the
rest of City Hall, but offer a different look. From a maintenance standpoint,
according to Iseman, the new material is preferred. The layout of the building
has not changed.
“We didn’t want to shrink the size of the building any so
we’re trying to take some measures with some other things to reduce the cost,”
said Iseman.
Bard stated that the projects will go out for rebid within
the next two weeks. To make it more competitive, Iseman said he hopes for five
or six different bidders for the projects.
“I hate changing the scope of the design work based on one
low round of bidding,” said Ward 3 Alderman John Maloney. “It could have just
been bad timing.”
Iseman stated that the biggest deletion from the project
he’d like to remain is the second, dedicated drive to Jones Avenue.
“If the money comes in right, we can still keep that as an
option down the road,” said Iseman.
Ultimately, the Grandview Board of Aldermen gave the okay
for the changes to the project and for the rebid process to take place at their
work session on Tuesday, October 20.