Minutes - Council - 02/09/2010 - Laserfiche WebLink

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City Engineer Himmer stated if the existing plans are bid, the only revision is to assure all specifications are updated that may have changed since 2004. Some revisions can be done in house. He noted the plans include nodes of existing streets that are no longer there and that needs to be addressed. Mayor Ramsey asked if the revisions are needed because of how it will be bid, to do only portions of the project. City Engineer Himmer explained that is the most difficult process, how you do the bid. He asked if the City will start with the intermediate plan and add bids, or group some improvements together depending on the option selected. Mayor Ramsey stated his surprise the City could have paid $80,000 for new plans and is now paying 25% more to revise the existing plans, which is probably not that much work. City Engineer Himmer explained the earlier proposals were based only on the master planning process and not related to plan preparation. He stated that depending on the direction given, staff can make plan revisions. However, to take advantage of the intricacies it is wise to include a consultant. Councilmember Elvig stated he had the opportunity to join staffs meeting when they were strategizing how to break this down. He noted the Council gave staff three options to scale it back and described the ripple effect to the plan when provisional features are added or removed. Councilmember Look stated the Council had decided to go with the third option, the more expensive option and to scale it back later, if desired. He stated his concern with bidder's failure to disclose information that later results in a project cost increase. He stated his support to bid the plan as it is. Councilmember Wise stated he does not support spending the money if City staff has the ability to do the engineering work in house. City Engineer Himmer clarified he is not proposing to do any engineering work, just to put together a tighter bid specification until it is known what will be bid. He stated the City can bid the existing plan with some groupings such as the Rhinestone Park parking lot because that bid will be based on quantity. He cautioned.that if the bid is stripped down, there is a threshold where the bid is no longer applicable. Councilmember Dehen stated everyone was on board with the plan and the only debate was with the parking lot area and number of trees in that area since the City owns a tree spade. Mayor Ramsey stated the Council gave direction to bid this park with the exception of the parking lot, and just because other features were discussed does not mean they will be included. Public Works Director Olson stated staff will do whatever is directed by the CounciL The case before the Council is to utilize expertise to tighten up the specifications. He reviewed the cost of City Council / February 9, 2010 Page 8 of 13