Lancaster rejects bids for highway department storage facility

[Lee Chowaniec]

The Lancaster Town Board by resolution unanimously rejected bids it had received for the construction of a highway department storage facility at the Pavement Road complex. It was announced at the work session that the town decided to downscale the size of the building to meet the bond limit funding of $865,000 set earlier in the year to construct such facility, resulting from loss of the current storage capability with the sale of the Walden Avenue Colecraft Building.

The building will be downsized by approximately 5,000 square feet; from approximately 25,000 square feet to approximately 20,000 square foot in size. The new scaled down design will be put out for re-bid.

At the public comment session, the writer asked what the bids came in at and what accounted for the increase in costs from the estimated design presented to the construction bidders. The bids came in at over $1 million. Highway Superintendent Dan Amatura responded that the building that was designed came in at a reasonable cost. “The costs for a heated floor and the electrical installation came in at more than what was anticipated.”

Resident Mike Fronczak followed and questioned Amatura on the cost increase caused by the installation of a radiant heated floor. “Is radiant heat the way to go, considering there will be salt and oil on the floor” asked Fronczak.

Amatura: With the contractors we talked to it is. It is more efficient and down the road it will less costly to run it. In the winter time it heats the equipment from the bottom and dries it out better and we were told that was the way to go.

Fronczak: Well I am a plumber and know a little bit about this. Yes, it is efficient once it’s up to temperature, but it doesn’t get there overnight. There are a few pro and cons with it – grate floors and making sure there is enough concrete. I know it’s a beautiful way of doing it, but I don’t know if it’s the best way of doing it for the bang for the buck. I do know it is an expensive install and I don’t know what temperature you want to maintain. I think that a lot of the cost. I can’t understand why a pole barn cost that much money. I have seen a lot of prices of pole barn buildings that were a lot cheaper. It doesn’t even have structural steel in it and sits on a concrete slab. This sounds like an expensive way of going and in heating it. Are we going to be heating the whole building, all 25,000 square feet at one time, or all the time?

Supervisor Fudoli: It is no different than what we are doing now at the Colecraft Building except there it is 75,000 square feet.

Fronczak; Do they have radiant heat there?

Supervisor Fudoli: No, but we need heated facilities for our equipment. We are not putting this out for bid because we want to, but because we need to have this storage facility because of the sale of the Colecraft Building. We need to store our equipment inside a building because of today’s electronics. The real issue here is the cost exceeding the bonding and we are willing to hold the cost by limiting the size of the building. We will make do with a lesser structure. And from what experts have told us this will be a more efficient building down the road using radiant heating. You voice concerns about concrete costing and reliability. The fire departments use the same operation and drive vehicles tens of thousands of weight across same floors.

Fronczak: I was just wondering if the alternate (design) bid was with the radiant heat installation and whether that was what drove the cost beyond the bond limit.

Town Engineer Robert Harris interjected that the cost to have radiant heat installed in the original design increased the cost by $125,000. (electrical instllation costs came in $115,000 more than estimated in the design process)

Fronczak: I am having a hard time swallowing a million dollars for something that I had some friends out in the suburbs…

Amatura: Time out. Did they put the job out for bid and then have to pay prevailing wages to have the job done. The town has to pay prevailing wages.

Harris: Take 40% off the price, Mike; for having to pay prevailing wages.

Supervisor Fudoli: We put it out for competitive bid. It’s not like w selected the most expensive responsible bidder. We are looking at the lowest bid received. It’s like Mr. Harris said, if someone built a comparable building and didn’t have to pay mandated prevailing wages the cost would be lowered by 40%. We could have built this building the way we wanted for somewhere from $400,000 to $500,000. But we are adding building costs because of having to pay prevailing wages. If you don’t like the process, change the system. I would prefer not to pay a prevailing wage.

Fronczak: I love a prevailing wage (Fronczak is a union plumber). Are there offices in the design; will there be lifts to do work? Is this just for a metal frame building, with a concrete slab and heating because a million dollars seems too pricy? I don’t want to see us downsize where we may need the space in the future just because of heating?

Fudoli: We’ll be good with it, Mike.

Fronczak: Thank you.

[hawkeye]

Why do they need to heat the whole building, 10,000 ft. of heated floor could do the job! The highway dept. has asked for replacement of several trucks and other equipment and you can't always get what you want? Look how long it took the police to get the New Station and they didn't even get a sink in the lunch room. Wow what the hell do the employees want? they have a sweet ass job and new equipment and still bitch!!!!!! look at the PBA is going to rent space in the NEW Police station for their officers to have meeting area and GYM, maybe they could lend the employees at the highway Dept. to heat their trucks.

[Lee Chowaniec]

Why do they need to heat the whole building, 10,000 ft. of heated floor could do the job! The highway dept. has asked for replacement of several trucks and other equipment and you can't always get what you want? Look how long it took the police to get the New Station and they didn't even get a sink in the lunch room. Wow what the hell do the employees want? they have a sweet ass job and new equipment and still bitch!!!!!! look at the PBA is going to rent space in the NEW Police station for their officers to have meeting area and GYM, maybe they could lend the employees at the highway Dept. to heat their trucks.

Hawkeye, the town acted fiscally responsible in downsizing the proposed highway storage facility to meet the bond limit of $865,000. Radiant heat was deemed efficient and essential to protect today’s newer equipment electronics. The electrical project costs exceed anticipated design costs by $135,000. Your question to save heat costs by only heating 50% of the building bears asking the town board.

What I found surprising is that having to pay prevailing wages increases project costs by 40%; $400,000 with this project. And the individual who made a point to voice concerns on the exorbitant cost of the project declared he ‘loved prevailing wages’ and continued to voice that the project costs were unreasonably high. He kind of missed the point as to why the project came in at such high cost and over the budgeted bond estimate limit.

It is the same as to how many people are ill informed as to the wasted taxpayer dollars that ensued from the purchase of the Walden Avenue Colecraft Building, the determination to then build a new police/courts building and the project revenue waste involved over 10 years.

In 2003, like me, others advocated for a new build for the police/courts building as a viable option. At that time the construction cost of doing so was pegged at $172.73 for square foot. The option was not considered because it was priced out at 75,000 square feet, the same size as the Colecraft Building, and would have cost $12.95 million to build and another $280,000 was estimated for property purchase. So $13.3 million would have been the cost for a new 75,000 square foot building for the police and courts – a state o f the art building. That building would have been large enough for the police/courts, a shooting range and a highway storage facility.

Today, ten years later, the town will be spending:

$7.4 million to construct a 26,900 square foot police courts building – today’s construction costs $274 per square foot.

$850,000 for construction/reconstruction of a 10,000 square foot vacated police garage building

$865,000 for the new construction of a 20,000 square foot highway department storage facility to replace the storage lost with the sale of the Colecraft Building.

$400,000 revenue loss from the purchase cost of the Colecraft Building and its recent sale

$500,000 in lost revenue from taking the Colecraft Building off the tax rolls

$200,000 (at minimum) cost for energy and building repairs

$700,000 was lost in revenue from a $350,000 grant because of the delay in building start and another $350,000 lost in added excavation costs – buried site equipment.

$500,000 in debt interest payback
__________________________________


$11.72 million dollars will be spent for 56,900 square foot of building space for the police/courts building, a shooting range and a storage building replacement. These estimated costs do not include costs for feasibility studies, legal fees, legal and court costs from a resident instated lawsuit, etc.

A 67,851 square foot building could have been constructed in 2003 for $11.72 million.

A 56,900 square foot building would have cost $9.83 million.

We are talking about some serious money here Hawkeye, not $200,000 that will not be spent by increasing the bond limit; wasted money brought on by a former administration that lied to the public. And some of those same board members are up for re-election this year.

Amatura and Fudoli should not take the heat for the sins of the past administration. In fact, it was Amatura as a town board in 2007 that suggested the sale of the Colecraft Building and building a new facility.

[gorja]

They sell 20,000 sq ft (100 x 200 x16) prefab metal buildings for $110,000 + shipping + concrete + electrical + heat + labor. Would all these (shipping + concrete + electrical + heat + labor) add up to $755,000?
http://mbmisteelbuildings.com/metal-...r-sale/100x200

[Lee Chowaniec]

They sell 20,000 sq ft (100 x 200 x16) prefab metal buildings for $110,000 + shipping + concrete + electrical + heat + labor. Would all these (shipping + concrete + electrical + heat + labor) add up to $755,000?
http://mbmisteelbuildings.com/metal-...r-sale/100x200

It is my understanding that the lowest bid for the highway storage building came in at the following:

$569,000 – Building
$223,000 – Floor
$235,000 – HVAC
$120,000 – Electrical

This a total well over the money bonded for the construction and the reason why the building was downsized. It was also noted at Monday meeting that labor costs to pay for prevailing wages increased the project cost by 40%.

Your building example does not include shipping and accessory costs as noted in the ad: Note: Shipping and accessories are not included in price of the building shell.

Unlike a prior board that increased an $8 million bond to $10 million for the police/courts/range project, this board is committed to staying within the bonding limit set.

[gorja]

I don't understand. You would think the town engineer or someone would have realized before the project went out to bid that the prevailing wages would have an upward effect on that bid. They all seem astonished that the bids came in so high.

[Lee Chowaniec]

I don't understand. You would think the town engineer or someone would have realized before the project went out to bid that the prevailing wages would have an upward effect on that bid. They all seem astonished that the bids came in so high.

The added radiant heat added to the cost and the electrical cost was more than estimated. Whether a screw up be someone or not the town is going to live with the bonded limit set.

[gorja]

The added radiant heat added to the cost and the electrical cost was more than estimated. Whether a screw up be someone or not the town is going to live with the bonded limit set.

Unlike the previous administration, who would have bonded for more.