Park pavilion: What's next?

Those of you who have donated money towards the pavilion deserve an explanation of where things stand as of this moment. The committee has raised $42,000 from donations. The city will be providing $35,000. That means that we have $77,000 available right now to build a pavilion. When I first costed out the project two years ago, I came up with a conservative estimate of $65,000. Last spring Menards Lumber in Bloomington gave us an estimate of $50,000 for materials from the blueprints. I thought that $30,000 for labor and profit would be in line for building a relatively simple structure that would probably take no more than a month to build. I was wrong!

Maybe the cost estimates were higher than I expected due to the fact that local contractors have been very busy the past 2 years. The market for contractors started in April of 2001 when Minonk was hit by a hail storm that damaged over half of the roofs in the town. Since then it has been a heyday for contractors repairing roofs. It seems like it is difficult to get any contractor to do anything else besides roofs. Minonk has seven general contractors. Only two from Minonk submitted a bid for the Westside Park pavilion. Another possible reason for the few bids from area contractors is their unwillingness to do work for the City of Minonk. I have heard from a few contractors that they had bad experiences with the city in past work done for the city. If so, that is unfortunate. However, they must realize that this is something that is being done for the residents with their donated money.

I can only make conjectures as to why the bids were so high. The blueprints prepared by the architect were very detailed and very professional. Perhaps too much so. It made the building look more complicated than what it really is and probably discouraged a thorough analysis by the contractors. It almost seems like they priced the pavilion out by multiply 2400 square feet by $60 per square foot. Another explanation is that there may have been materials included in the blueprints that were more expensive than what was in the original specs.

These are the options that seem apparent to me. First, we can negotiate with Tjaden Construction, the low bidder, to see if there is any way to lower the bid through changing the plans or the materials requirements. This could involve eliminating windows, ceiling covering, etc. I hesitate to do any cost cutting that will compromise the appearance of the building. My feeling is that this is a building that reflects the quality of the community. It is better to not put up anything at all than to put up a structure that is unappealing in order to save money. I don't see how we can cut $20,000 from the cost without sacrificing the quality and the appearance of the building.

The second option is to try to raise more money for the pavilion construction. I don't know if this is possible. We could contact some of the larger employers in the area such as State Farm or Caterpillar for funds but I feel that due to the economy, these firms would be heisitant to contribute. I also do not know what the city council would be willing to do in the way of providing more money for the pavilion. It also appears that those who are going to donate money have already done so.

The third option is to re-open the project for bids after reworking the specifications on the pavilion. This may or may not bring in a lower bid. Again, this would be only be done if the committee could agree on what changes could be made to the pavilion in order to lower the bid.

The fourth option is for the Westside Park committee to be bonded as a general contractor. The committee could then seek out its own contractors to do the various stages of the construction project. This could involve soliciting volunteers to donate their time to help build the pavilion. I was contacted last spring by a local person who was a licensed electrician who said that he would be willing to donate his services to help build the pavilion. The advantage of this approach is that the committee should be able to complete the pavilion at a lower cost than if done entirely by a private contractor.

I encourage your feedback on what solution you feel is best for the Westside Park pavilion. Our reputation and pride is at stake here. To falter on this project could be the beginning of the end of our community spirit. Keep that in mind in case we are forced again to fight another landfill battle.