By MELINDA J. OVERSTREET
for Glasgow News 1
The local project development board overseeing the creation of a justice center for Barren County in Glasgow chose a local company Wednesday to do the earthwork, including stormwater drainage measures, for the facility.
Four bids were received for this phase of the work; they ranged from $589,978.90 to $987,804.29. The lowest of those came from Larry Glass Construction.
Circuit Judge John T. Alexander pointed out that, as they broached the agenda item, one bid was “considerably lower” than the others, and he asked Tommy Gumm, CEO of Alliance Corp., the construction management firm for the project, whether he had any general comments about the bids.
Gumm said that lowest bid was “substantially lower than our budget estimate” as well as the other bids received, but he had discussed it with the Glass company.
“They assured me that they’re OK with their proposal, their bid. They went into it being very aggressive. Most of us locally know Mr. Glass. Mr. Glass likes to work at home, and so I just believe they were very aggressive, but I have no reservations at all about their ability to do the work,” Gumm said.
The judge, sort of jokingly, said, “He didn’t forget to carry a 1 or anything like that?”
Gumm confirmed the math was as intended, and he added that he also has no doubt the company could get the work done within the 110 calendar days specified. Alexander asked when they would be starting.
Gumm said the work could commence after a letter of intent or a contract is presented to Glass, but the Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts has to review the contract first. He said he has it ready to send to them, and he hoped they could get the sitework started in the next couple of weeks.
With that, a motion, second and unanimous vote among the five members present selected Glass.
As the meeting got underway earlier, architect Brian Estep informed the group that requests for proposals were sent to four companies for testing and special inspections, and three had been received.
“We are in the process of evaluating them,” he said, and they would update the group and make a recommendation once that’s done.
He mentioned an issue with a fiber service line, and Richard Tutt, an engineer with American Engineers Inc. elaborated that they had discovered a fiberoptic line in the vicinity of where one block of Ford Drive – from West Main to West Water streets – is to be relocated that serves several thousand customers and had needed to make some adjustments in the plans to accommodate not having to move that, and they’ve been coordinating this effort with the City of Glasgow, which owns the adjoining property, South Central Rural Telecommunications Cooperative and Alliance Corp. in the process.
Tutt said they’re looking at new information today that indicates a grade change in the back parking lot may be necessary.
Gumm said they learned of the issue with the fiberoptic line “at kind of the 11th hour” in the process of receiving the bids on the sitework and chose not to delay that process.
“We will have to issue a request with new documents, but … we’re working to minimize the effect of that, but we just felt like we should move forward,” he said.
It is likely to necessitate a change order from the original plan, once the new documents are issued, but the hope is “ there won’t be very many dollars involved.”
Judge Alexander, who was presiding over the meeting as vice chair, said he appreciated that they had forged ahead with the bid process rather than stopping it and having to start over.
Matt Allen, another AEI engineer, said a meeting had taken place about two weeks ago with state transportation officials regarding improvements to West Main Street in the vicinity of the project, which is along the 300 block of the state-maintained highway. He said most changes were accepted but the transportation folks made a request that a “refuge area” be created for pedestrians in the center lane of the street where a crosswalk would be established. A curb-level raised island would be created on each side of the pedestrian pathway in the crosswalk so individuals could get across one lane when it’s clear but then have a relatively safe place to pause before crossing the other lane if it’s not clear. He said later that he heard back from the state personnel Wednesday morning, and the request had been changed to a requirement that would be imposed before the project would receive any permits from the state to make changes along the roadway.
A photo of a street on the Western Kentucky University campus in Bowling Green where such a refuge area was created was displayed for the board, followed by a map graphic showing the initially proposed location of the crosswalk that would have the refuge space.
Discussion took place for several minutes about whether that was the best place for the crosswalk, and members of design and engineering teams said they would continue discussions and consider other options, but it could still end up being there, where it would connect with a ramp in the sidewalk where it connects with West Main and Ford.
Gumm added as he began his construction management report that the intent is to not use West Main, which is more congested, as a construction entrance; they will use the side streets to enter the property.
He said they may need to get a construction easement from the city to access some of the work they’ll need to do.
Board member Rich Alexander, who is also the city attorney for Glasgow, said he had met with the public works superintendent, who he believed had spoken with the general manager of the municipally owned Glasgow Water Co., which is immediately to the east of the justice-center site, and GWC had no issue with a temporary construction easement, so he thought that was moving in the right direction.
Gumm said he was actually talking about the city property on the west side of the site, that would be along the newly located segment of Ford Drive.
“Yes, we, I think there’s drawings for that,” Alexander said. “And we’re going to submit that to the council here just as soon as that’s concluded.”
The board then selected the bid for the sitework and unanimously approved a disbursement of $311,812.20 for half of the architects’ Phase C design work.
Before the meeting concluded, Chip Sutherland, managing director for public finance for Baird, a financial advising company, said that the $3.7 million bond anticipation note for the project – a relatively temporary loan to meant to provide operating funds for getting the project started, including the property purchase, that would be paid off when the county issues bonds to cover the cost the entire project, including construction – would be coming due Dec. 1. His recommendation was to get a new BAN issued to cover the principal and roughly $300,000 interest on the first one, plus about $500,000 more to make sure there’s enough to cover expenses through around the first of March 2025, which is roughly the anticipated time frame for construction to begin.
He said he would work with the bond attorney to get a resolution prepared for this plan to move forward.
Judge Alexander said that Judge-Executive Jamie Bewley Byrd, who was absent from the meeting due to being away on a work-related trip, would need to spearhead that with the Barren County Fiscal Court and they would need to get that information to her.
The next regularly scheduled meeting is at 2:30 p.m. Sept. 25 in Fiscal Court Chambers in the Barren County Government Center, 117 N. Public Square, Glasgow.
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