Minutes - 2005/07/25 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mounds View City Council July 25, 2005 Regular Meeting Page 11 • Public Works Director Lee stated that they could only get quotes from specific contractors if the project is less than $50,000 noting that legally, because the City is a public entity and the project cost is over $50,000, the City would have to go out for competitive bidding. He stated that the City could not specifically ask individual contractors to bid on the process but specific contractors could provide the City with their cost estimates for the project adding that the City would also have to open the bid process to competitors. He explained that the City would have to have plans and specifications for stick construction done before the City could open the bid process noting that the City is back to square one in the planning process. Council Member Thomas suggested exploring some of the local community colleges as a possibility for construction resources. She stated that utilizing the students could be a significant savings for the City. Council Member Flaherty referenced the letter from TKDA to Steve Dazinski regarding stick construction and reviewed the letter with Council. He clarified that Council was not asking for a recommendation on stick construction they are asking for variety of options that would include a breakout of the costs for those options. He stated that in the future Council would like options from TKDA. Public Works Director Lee acknowledged their request stating that providing options would be an additional cost. He stated that he would ask them to include the comparisons. • Mr. Werner clarified that TKDA charged the City $20,000 for the purpose of giving the City a bid. Mayor Marty clarified that the $20,000 is what TKDA charged for designing the plans and reviewed the process with Council Public Works Director Lee further clarified that the $19,600 was for the plans and specifications noting that TKDA came in the lowest bid noting .that other engineering firms had stated that they could not come close to that bid. Mayor Marty thanked the Parks, Recreation and Forestry Commission for their work noting that the Council is not trying to shoot them down. He explained that Council would like further review of the options noting that the City can't afford this and should work to determine what would work best. He stated that this is too extravagant and should be more realistic. Cindy Palm, Parks, Recreation and Forestry Commission stated that she too was surprised at the amount when the bid came back from TKDA. She stated that she had expected this reaction from Council and agreed that the Council should consider other options including stick construction. She also agreed .that the bid was too high and expensive and explained that they had to bring the current bids before Council for their review in order to get to this point in the process where they could move forward with considering alternate options. •