Council acts on Community Center savings

“We’ll strike number 11,” Mayor Al Haas said before the November 2nd council meeting after conferring with John Hoel of the public works department, then going on to explain. “Costs came in too high.” The price estimates in question were related to a bid from Senn Blacktop.

In due fashion agenda item 11 was struck from the listing and business was carried on. As to the Chapman Park Community Center slated to be built by Market and Johnson at Chapman Park, a bit of clarity is in order, prior to a detailing of the change order.

In case there was any reader confusion on the stated construction cost of the Chapman Park Community Center, the official cost to local taxpayers with the grant and insurance factored in is budgeted at $211,000. After initially being budgeted at $ 1.508 million after contingency was added to the Market and Johnson bid of roughly $1.48 million, a change order of $118,000 has brought down the $1.48 million bid to just $1.361 million, with $15,000 of contingency cost for winter conditions factored into this same $1.3561 million. The figure of $211,000 in local taxpayer contributions, meanwhile, is reached by subtracting the $1.15 million in outside funding sources from the overall $1.361 million cost once the change order is applied to it, of which $1 million hinged on a previously unsecured grant, no longer in question. The change order for the project, meanwhile, is dated October 28 and signed by Cedar Corporation architect Corey Scheidler, with (decreased costs) represented therein with parentheses. Care to take a look?

Starting out the cost savings on the Community Center bid is a reduction in cost of ($700) for “Lighting Package Supplier Deduct.” Following upon this is ($1,200) in total savings for using “Aluminum Feeders in lieu of copper,” while a savings of ($10,000) is listed for “LP in lieu of Wall Panels at Roof Edge.” Changing the soffit to “Rolex in lieu of Steel” leaves a net win of ($2,000) for cost-conscious taxpayers.

Among the major savings listed are ($24,347) for precast finish and window modifications, ($12,000) for garage door glazing modifications,

Photo by Joseph Back. and a whopping ($50,000) for an asphalt roof in lieu of Steel,” plus ($16,800) for “sealed concrete in lieu of fluid flooring,” or else a floor poured in liquid form which then hardens to a smooth surface.

Ditching the savings parentheses but keeping along the same cost track, the Community Center project was able to delete $12,000 from the total bill by nixing “Panel Partition Removal,” along with a further $2,500 for “Picture Rail Removal.” Choosing an electric water heater in place of on demand, brings a net savings of $1,450, with a switch to Pex underfloor versus copper overhead yielding $4,500.

Meanwhile, revised RTU modifications brought about $7,400, while a CT Cabinet mounted on the building yielded $1,040 in cost savings. The removal of door operators saved $3,000, while removal of soffit lighting saved $2,900, with removal of the access control removing $8,500 from the final projected cost of construction. The savings were yet to come. Choosing plam cabinets in place of phenolic, meanwhile, led to $10,500 in project cost reduction. In case the names stump you, they refer to materials used.

Closing out the savings side of the change order was $900 in cost reduction for choosing hollow metal in place of aluminum for doors 103B and 109B, while the removal of a roof drain removed $2,800 in costs and the removal of 12 windows saved $4,400 for local taxpayers on the hook for the building. With savings totaling $178,937 in the change order, there are still costs to balance this out for a net savings of $118,533 as recorded on the change form.

Balancing out the initial $178,937 to the above in savings are three separate charges, taken as a whole and subtracted to reach the net savings figure.

The first charge of $29,859 is for added concrete costs for the foundations in place of precast, $15,000 in added winter conditions cost due to the contract date (included as a line item with $15,000 the upper limit), and a whopping $15,545 in added lumber costs “due to inflation,” which it was said recently wouldn’t come as a surprise to those watching construction costs recently.

All told then, the change order beginning with a starting value of $1,480,384 then subtracts a total of $178,937 in cost savings to bottom out just above $1.3 million, before an additional $60,404 in added costs brings the final price figure back to $1,361,851 for the Chapman Park Community Center.

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