Council rejects bids for aquatics center at park

Township manager recommended action

Peters council has rejected the five bids received for the township’s proposed aquatic center at Rolling Hills Park.

Council members David Ball, Monica Merrell, Frank Kosir Jr., Gary Stiegel Jr., James Berquist and Frank Arcuri voted Monday to reject the bids.

Council member Robert Lewis was absent.

Township manager Paul Lauer recommended council reject the bids as the pool subcontractor withdrew its bid because of a cost calculation error. Vincent Pools Inc. was the subcontractor for the pool on four out of the five bids. According to the council docket, Vincent Pools withdrew its bid because of a nearly $300,000 error in cost calculation.

Mr. Lauer said because of the “significant error” in the cost calculation, Vincent Pools was permitted to withdraw its bid.

The township manager also said the cost of the earthwork to prepare the site for the aquatic center being done in conjunction with the first phase of Rolling Hills Park is not included in the bid amount. That cost is $691,529.

“If you include that number into the numbers that are provided, the total cost of the project becomes $12,173,529,” Mr. Lauer said. “This is in excess of what we had envisioned the cost of this project to be.”

The township estimated the cost of the aquatic center at between $10.2 million and $11.3 million.

“We are continuing to pursue grant funding to substantially offset the construction cost,” Mr. Lauer said. He said he should know whether Peters qualifies for the grant funding by the end of June or middle of July.

Mr. Lauer said he would work on gathering information as to why the bids were so high and hoped to have that information to council by its next meeting on June 14.

Council also requested that more information regarding the aquatic center be relayed to the public.

Ms. Merrell suggested another survey be sent to residents to “go back and try to find out what people think about the whole project.”

Mr. Arcuri agreed, and added, “I think we should try to get a little more input from the public.”

“That’s all I heard about at the polls this past election — people asking me a lot of questions about that (the aquatic center),” Mr. Arcuri said.

Mr. Kosir said he favors another public hearing on the project.

Mr. Lauer said he will work on a strategy on how to move forward.