By MELINDA J. OVERSTREET
for Glasgow News 1
It appears that maybe – just maybe – the total of the bids for the construction of a justice center for Barren County is going to be under the amount budgeted by the construction management team early this year.
With the standard preliminaries like roll call and minutes out of the way, Wednesday’s meeting of the local project development board overseeing the process kicked off with a hint of what was to come.
Brian Estep, speaking for the design team, said he didn’t have a lot to talk about, “other than we were excited to hear the news that I’m sure Tommy’s going to talk a little bit more about – that the numbers appear to be trending in a direction that we all like to see them on bid day. So, other than that, we’re just kind of waiting for that process to officially wrap up, anxious to hear what Tommy has to share.”
Construction bids were opened Thursday at Alliance Corp., the company handling construction management for the project.
Tommy Gumm, CEO of Alliance, said, “We’re pretty excited about the outcome of the bidding, very pleased.”
He said the company is still undergoing a review of the low bids with the companies that made them to confirm the documents, their responsibilities, etc.
“I preface the other that I’m getting ready to say in regard to that, because there could be some changes – a contractor has to withdraw or if we decide a contractor’s not qualified and need to change contractors – but, on March the 5th of this year, we submitted a final construction-document budget of just raw construction costs,” he began.
He said that $42,663,300 budget was just the total of all the bid packages, with no fees added on. He said that did include the first two bid groups as well – the demolition of the former buildings on the site and the preconstruction work that has included earth movement, stormwater management preparations, though there is still one adjustment from a change order to make.
Gumm added that among the bid packages that were due last week for Thursday’s opening, there were two that didn’t have at least two bidders, and the Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts requires that minimum, so they didn’t open the bids they did receive for those.
One of those packages was for the casework/millwork and the other was for the elevators.
In an effort to increase the bids, Alliance has created an addendum to the bid document extending the time for those bids to be submitted, he said.
“So, my preface here is, if those two bid packages come in at or close to our budget, we really believe we’re somewhere in the the $36 [million] to $37 million range, which is about – if I did my math correct – is about 13 or 14 percent below our final construction-document budget,” Gumm said.
He said it’s been a team effort and he congratulated everyone.
Barren County Judge-Executive Jamie Bewley Byrd, who chairs the board, said she arrived at the tail-end of the bid-opening process, and it was thrilling to see the bid totals come together.
She asked Gumm whether he had contacted anyone with R.W. Baird, the financial advising company on the project that works with the issuances of the bonds. He said that, per the AOC, he was waiting until all the confirmed numbers.
Michael Oldiges and Maria Long, investment bankers with Baird, were present via Zoom. Oldiges pointed out that short-term notes that had been obtained to cover the early costs of the project – land purchases, engineering, design, construction management, etc. – mature Dec. 1, so they would definitely want to get the final bond sale for the overall project done before that, preferably by October. This final bond sale is meant to finance not only the upcoming construction phase but also to pay off those earlier notes.
Byrd asked more questions about the timeline, starting with how long the extension is for additional bids to come in on the two packages that didn’t have two bidders last week. They’re due Aug. 26, Gumm said.
“What happens after that?” she asked. “… Tell me that process.”
Gumm said that by their next regular meeting, Aug. 27, they’ll have the hard numbers ready from the earlier bid packages and will try to review the last two bid packages that same day they’re opened or the next morning to be able to report that result to them.
“But we will have a final construction number that then AOC will take and massage … and put in the overall cost of the construction fees,” he said, asking Mark Bannister, officer for the AOC’s Department of Court Facilities to add any necessary corrections or clarifications.
Bannister said that provided the final bids total is within budget, they’ll give Baird the go-head to start working on getting the bonds sold, and a date will be set and it will get advertised.
“While that’s going on, we’ll work to get Tommy’s contract in place, and if we get Tommy’s contract in place,” he said, estimating a 30-day process, and after that, actual construction work can begin.
By the time they’ve worked for roughly a month and Gumm is ready to submit the bill for the first construction payment, the bonds will have been sold and they’ll have funds in place to pay for that first construction work disbursement and beyond, Bannister said, summarizing that’s about a two-month time period.
“We’ll just be building the building at that point,” he said.
Gumm chimed in that, “probably at best, we could think about starting construction the middle of September maybe.”
Bannister said it would be more likely to be about 30 days from that next bid deadline of Aug. 26 before they could start work.
He said Gumm will need to have a list of all his subcontractors ready to submit, and AOC personnel will plug in the numbers for the guaranteed maximum price, and will amend his existing contract. Simultaneously, the bond sale process will be happening.
Jerry Combs, with the AOC’s capital construction division, said he believes the board will have to vote on the subcontractor list as well as the bottom-line figure, and Bannister said he believed that was correct.
Gumm said perhaps they could shoot for doing that at a special meeting the first week of September or at least by their first September regular meeting, which falls on the 10th.
Byrd, who had been attending via Zoom, had lost her connection during this part of the discussion, and Circuit Judge John T. Alexander, the vice chair, took over presiding.
Bannister asked Gumm whether he’d had any progress on a bid package he thought he might have an issue with, later clarifying that he meant one that Gumm had indicated he may not be able to accept. Gumm said the interview with that bidder is this week.
Before Bannister’s clarification, Gumm said Alliance has contacted two other companies and sent specific invitations for them to bid, and they both declined, citing timing issues with their current workloads. Bannister also said he is double-checking whether they can move forward if at least two bids still are not received for the two bid packages for which the deadline was extended.
Alexander said, “I guess it seems like we’re in as good a shape as we can hope to be in, you know, on a project of this size and with the kind of money that you’re talking about. As everyone has said, it’s certainly better to be 13 or 14 percent under than 13 or 14 percent over.”
At Bannister’s suggestion, those board members still present informally agreed to “pencil in” a possible special-called meeting the afternoon of Sept. 3 in case it’s needed, with the plan being to firm up at the Aug. 27 meeting whether they’ll need it and set a specific time if they do.
The next regular meeting is at 2:30 p.m. Aug. 27 on Floor 3 of the Barren County Government Center, 117 N. Public Square, Glasgow.
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