Council OKs rebid for skate park project

Staff say busy contractors were reason no bids were received on first attempt

LANSDALE » It’s official — construction of a skate park in Lansdale Borough will have to wait until 2019.

Borough council voted unanimously Wednesday night to seek a second set of bids on the skate park project, after a first attempt produced no results.

“I’m confident that it wasn’t our project, or any misinterpretation of the bids itself. It really seems to be a timing and calendaring of the job issue,” said council member Mary Fuller.

As head of the borough’s Parks and Recreation committee, Fuller has led public talks since early 2016 on whether, where, and how to construct a skate park somewhere in town. Throughout 2016 and 2017, public meetings were held to hear feedback from local skaters, choose a site adjacent to Fourth Street Park, hire a design consultant and architect, then refine the design based on public input. In March council authorized staff to prepare and advertise bid specifications for the park, and those documents were posted in June, but borough staff reported earlier this month that no bids were received and a second attempt would be needed.

“We really have done nothing wrong. You have to understand that the building of a skate park of this type is an art form. There’s only a certain number of reputable companies that can perform this type of work,” said Parks and Recreation Director Carl Saldutti.

Six companies asked the borough for the bid packages, but none submitted bids, and Saldutti said when he contacted them afterward to ask about any problems, all gave the same answer.

“I personally made a call to the six companies who can build this, who received the bid package, and asked for the information as to why we didn’t receive a bid,” he said.

“They all stated they couldn’t fit it into a schedule, so we might be better served, again, taking this approach,” he said.

The new motion approved by council Wednesday night would post the new bid specifications in September, with construction to begin sometime in March 2019. No changes have been made to the design, Fuller said, nor the funding sources: roughly $225,000 in a state grant, roughly the same amount in a local match from borough Parking Authority funds received from developer Equus Capital Partners from the sale of the borough’s Madison Parking Lot, and a $46,000 cost for engineering included in the borough’s capital project budget.

“Everything is still the same, except the timeline,” she said.

Current plans do not include lighting for the skate park, but infrastructure will be put in place to allow for lighting later on if users and neighbors want it, she said.

“We expect the primary users will be skateboarders, but we imagine there will be other kinds of wheeled activity in that park, whether it be roller blades, or bikes, that kind of activity as well,” Fuller said.

Saldutti said he has contacted the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, which awarded the grant, and said the state has guaranteed that the grant funds will be extended to the end of 2019.

“I will also caution that that doesn’t mean that we’ll get a bid. It depends on the number of projects that are out there, the timelines of their bidding processes in the various communities,” he said.

“It’s a very short list, if you will, of qualified contractors to build these,” Saldutti said.

Councilman Jack Hansen made a motion to table the rebid until learning more about why the borough received no bids, but the motion received no seconds, and Fuller and Saldutti then explained the reasons for the delay and lack of bids. Councilman Rich DiGregorio asked why the new bid package specifies work can begin in March 2019, when winter weather may make for poor conditions for digging, and Saldutti said that was done to allow more flexibility.

“That would be the earliest we could start construction. It could be March 15, it could be the end of March, we have some flexibility there. Obviously, conditions will be taken into consideration,” he said.

Lansdale’s borough council next meets at 9 p.m. on Aug. 1, with various council committees meeting starting at 7 p.m. For more information or meeting agendas and materials visit www.Lansdale.org or follow @LansdalePA on Twitter.