Board OKs bids on new WWTP office building, fire station

Friday, November 18, 2016

Bids on a pair of City of Greencastle construction projects were accepted by the Board of Public Works and Safety Wednesday afternoon at City Hall.

The board awarded the new wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) office building project to Joe Spiker Excavating Inc., Greencastle -- the lowest of six bidders -- at $440,151.

Meanwhile, the fire station renovation project was awarded to Evan & Ryan Contractors, Terre Haute, the lower of two bidders on the entire project, at $391,223. Four proposals were received overall on the fire station work with two firms only submitting bids on the interior improvements.

The Spiker bid came in a bit more than the project estimate of $420,100, however, it was recommended by the engineers that the city accept the bid, Mayor Bill Dory said.

“We’re about where we thought we’d be,” Dory said, indicating the new office building will be financed by a short-term loan.

Operating in a building erected as a sewer plant 35 years ago, the Greencastle Wastewater Department hopes to move its accommodations into the 21st century.

The board had engaged Curry & Associates Engineers, Danville, for the design of a new utilities building to replace the 1980 wastewater structure on West Columbia Street that has been used by the Wastewater Department as an office in recent years.

Currently the wastewater staff uses the old control building as office space, which requires maintenance of a structure much larger than necessary. Heating and cooling the old facility is a costly all-or-nothing proposition as well, employees said.

The heat runs all the time or not at all, as Oscar King has noted previously, calling the structure “just a bad building” due to its issues with moisture and mold.

Lori Young of Curry & Associates said previously the goal of the WWTP project was to create a “modest building” to meet the utility department’s needs for office and lab space.

Besides the winning Spiker bid, proposals were also received on the WTTP office building from SCS Construction Services, Greenwood, $570,000; MSI Construction, Clinton, $604,800; Patterson-Horth, Indianapolis, $632,000; Graves Plumbing Services, Switz City, $636,363; and Mitchell and Stark Construction, Medora, $694,900.

Meanwhile, in regard to the fire department project, in September 2015 the city received a $400,000 grant from the Public Facilities Program (PFP) through the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) to rehabilitate the 37-year-old fire station.

The planned work includes stabilization of exterior walls and windows (to also help energy efficiency) as well as modifications to the second-floor living quarters that were cut back during construction of the original project. That includes such interior improvements as renovation of the bunkroom (where tall firemen could never stand completely up in the shower) and kitchen.

The life of the fire station spans the administrations of eight city mayors (including three serving multiple terms), basically without seeing any major repairs or restoration.

Originally constructed in 1979, the building faces pressing needs for exterior structural improvements, city officials believe.

The City Council has authorized a local match commitment of $52,504 for the project. Of that total, $39,501 will come from the city’s Cumulative Fire Fund, $9,503 in philanthropic capital held at the Putnam County Community Foundation and $3,500 already paid out for preliminary engineering work.

While Evan and Ryan was the low bidder on the fire station renovation project, other bids were received from Glenroy Construction, Indianapolis, $407,000; Davis and Associates, Indianapolis, $188,000 (interior work only), and McDowell Pierce, $185,000 (interior work only).

The low bid (with $5,000 alternate for brick wainscotting) actually puts the project $22,000 over budget, Mayor Dory said.

He suggested that the $22,000 be taken out of the city’s 2017 EDIT fund allotment, which coincidentally enough will see about a $22,000 increase next year, Dory said.

In other business, the board also approved an expenditure of $48,050 to replace 20-year-old actuators on Filter 2 at the water plant. The new actuators will include a conversion from water pressure to electrical operation.

The board also learned that with approximately $90,000 remaining unspent in the SRF loan that funded the water project, the city can pay for the parts (about $85,000 worth) to replace actuators in Filters 1 and 3. It could then fund the cost of labor to install them later, possibly during the 2017 budget cycle. An exact proposal on that part of the work will be brought before the Board of Works at a later date.

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: