Skip to main content

Boreal Community Media

Update on Capital Projects: High Bids Rejected and Proposed Capital Projects Deferred

Jul 24, 2018 06:14PM ● By Editor

July 24, 2018 – The proposed Hovland Public Works Garage and Community Center Warming House capital projects will be deferred after attempts to value engineer the bids received by the County, were unsuccessful.

On June 26, the Board voted to accept the lowest bid on all three of the County’s proposed major capital projects contingent on the ability to value engineer each of the projects within the fiscal constraints of the allocated budget. Attempts to negotiate the two contracts to meet the budget constraints were made over the last few weeks, by County Administrator Jeff and were subsequently rejected when price tags remained too high.

“While it is unfortunate that these projects are not able to move ahead at this time, the bids received are currently unrealistic for Cook County, and it would not be fiscally responsible to move forward beyond the budget that was allocated,” said Board Chair Ginny Storlie.

The following update was presented to the Board today from County Administrator Jeff Cadwell:

Hovland Public Works Facility
Cook County had a budget of $1,244,000 for the Hovland Public Works facility. The low bid received would have put the project at $1,630,253. After value engineering, that total was $1,525,374. At this point, we have rejected all bids and plan to re-bid the project in February of 2019.

Community Center Warming House

The Community Center Warming House project had a total projected cost of $310,000. Bids received brought the cost of the project to $546,379. We have rejected all bids and will work with the lowest bidder to develop specifications that allow us to develop a building that serves anticipated program needs and comes in below the new increased bidding requirements of $175,000. We hope to have an update on this process within 30 days.

Community Center Skating Rink

Cook County did accept the low qualified bid for the Community Center Skating Rink project. Crawford Excavating will be completing this work before Nov.1, 2018, and will be coordinating the dasher board repairs with Becker Arena Products.

“Cook County anticipates issuing bids for the Courthouse roof and Law Enforcement Center windows yet this summer,” said County Administrator Jeff Cadwell. “Our hope is to deliver all of the items on the Capital Projects List for the bond issue within the allocated $2,054,000 of funds available before the end of summer 2019. We are carefully planning these projects and going through the appropriate processes, and this is an instance where we must stick to that plan.” 

-30-

Contact: Valerie Marasco, Director – Office of Emergency Management & Public Information, 218-387-5366 or [email protected]

 

Boreal Ship Spotter - larger view here