Projected cost exceeds budget by more than $900,000

The City of Hartselle will have to rebid its pool project after it came in more than $900,000 over what had been budgeted for the pool.

The lowest bid of the five bids submitted was from Bennett Construction of Alabaster for $3,123,248 and the highest bid was from Murray Building Company in Birmingham for $3.385 million.

Mayor Dwight Tankersley, who attended the bid opening in the city hall auditorium, said the bids were much higher than the $2.2 million that had been budgeted for the project.

However, Tankersley doesn’t think the city should redesign the project.

“I recommend that we rebid it with some deductive alternatives to allow the ability to pick and choose what we want to cut from the project,” Tankersley said. “But I don’t think we should take out too much because we will begin to lose the size and scope of what we’re doing.”

The council unanimously agreed with Tankersley and will put the project back up for bid immediately with bid alternative packages. Tankersley’s target would be around $2.8 million with the entire bond issue costing about $3.3 million.

John Godwin of GBW Architects in Decatur suggested some of the alternatives could be excluding or changing the landscape or parking area, eliminating an elevated peninsula in the middle of the pool, changing the kind of fencing or even eliminating the lazy river in the pool.

“I was hoping to have the project come in around $2.5 to $2.8 million, but what we designed is a $3.1 million pool,” Godwin said. “Now, I just want to give you options to help get the cost where you want it to be.”

Councilman Tom Chappell said he felt like he didn’t want to cut the project too much because this design of the pool is what Tankersley and Park and Recreation director Frank Miller thought the city needed.

“There’s not much fluff in this project as it is right now,” Chappell said. “This is our one chance to do this right. If we take too much out of this project, then we’re not going to have what we need.”

Councilman Don Hall suggested adding the lazy river at a different time, but Councilman Bill Smelser said it wouldn’t be as economical or as feasible to do it then.

Although Councilman Mark Mizell said he still supports getting out of the pool business altogether, he still thinks the city needs to find the balance between cost effectiveness and draw from local residents.

“Everything you come up with, the main question that we’re going to get asked is how does it compare with Point Mallard,” Mizell said. “We just have to find that balance so that it’s not a drain on the city’s general fund.”

Tankersley anticipated that the project could have another bid opening on Dec. 27, which is the day of the next city council meeting.