Majestic Park bids opened via Zoom
A bid opening for the Majestic Park baseball complex was held Tuesday afternoon at the offices of Hill & Cox via Zoom, in keeping with social distancing practices brought about by the coronavirus pandemic.
Zoom and other online video conferencing platforms are being widely used during the pandemic as a way for groups to meet remotely, without personal contact.
Fifteen bid packages were opened and an
nounced at the meeting, which was directed by Hill & Cox President Brian Hill.
“The next step is Hill & Cox is going over the bids and making sure they met all the specifications, that everything checks out and then they will present that to us,” Visit Hot Springs CEO Steve Arrison said. “Then we’ll look at that and see what the totals are, if we need to look at the design or do some value engineering to get it within budget.”
The Majestic Park project has an $8 million budget. Arrison said he anticipates the full amount to be used for the project.
The five-field baseball facility, which will be located at the former site of the Hot Springs Boys & Girls Club, is being funded by the proceeds from an $8.5 million bond issue city voters approved on Sept. 10, 2019, and a $500,000 grant from the Oaklawn Foundation.
As to whether or not the pandemic has helped or hurt the project, Arrison said he does not know yet.
“I think when we analyze the numbers and get that report from Hill & Cox I’ll be able to answer that a little better,” he said, adding that they will reconvene with Hill & Cox within the next couple of days.
Arrison said the pandemic did not delay the bidding process because the bond money has already been funded.
“We have the money; we need to do the project,” he said. “Since we could do it on Zoom, there was really no reason to delay.”
B&F Engineering Inc. is the park contractor and HALFF Associates Inc. is the park subcontractor. The bid opening for the Majestic Park baseball complex had originally scheduled for April 2, but was delayed due to the pandemic. The project’s completion date is currently projected for spring 2021.