Lansdale OKs $10.9M contract
LANSDALE — After 25 years of having public meetings and government offices at 1 Vine St., a week full of long-planned changes for Lansdale Borough has arrived.
On Wednesday night borough council voted to award a $10.9 million construction contract and grant land development approval for a new municipal complex to be built alongside an expanded borough hall, and did both during council’s first meeting in its temporary home, the North Penn School District’s Educational Services Center.
“We’ve worked hard, we’ve done it professionally the entire way, we’ve made good sound decisions, and this end result is a direct result of all of our hard work,” said council President Matt West.
“Folks wanted us to run the borough government more like a business, and we have done that. We’re following through with what we promised to do,” he said.
Wednesday night’s first vote continued an unfinished piece of business from the last meeting at borough hall, when on Oct. 16 Mayor Andy Szekely vetoed the
preliminary and final land development approval for the municipal complex.
Council voted 7-2 to override that veto, after borough Solicitor Joe Clement said his firm questioned whether Szekely had the authority as mayor to issue that veto in the first place, and described a similar borough veto from the early 1970s that was ultimately overturned by the courts.
Following that override, council voted — also by a 7-2 count, with councilmen Jack Hansen and Rich DiGregorio opposing — to award a $10.919 million contract to Pennsburg-based Gordon H. Baver Inc. to perform the demolition, renovation, and construction work for the new borough complex.
Hansen said during discussions that he questioned whether that expense was included in the bond documentation when the 2012 bond was approved, and voted against the bid award Wednesday because borough Manager Timi Kirchner did not provide information relating to that 2012 bond issue ahead of the vote.
During much of 2012 and 2013, borough staff and council have discussed issues with the current borough hall, a 1930s-era post office converted to office space in the mid-1980s, and discussed plans for a combined police station and office building located within the facade and walls of the current hall — with the roughly $10 million construction price to be largely funded by a borough capital bond borrowing from 2012. Kirchner described that project history before the vote, starting with an operations review and facilities study commissioned by council four years ago, and said the municipal complex will not require another bond issue but will be funded by the 2012 bond proceeds and other capital reserve funds.
Architect Scott Malin of Spiezle Architectural Group described the qualifications of Baver, the contractor recommended by his firm, and said the spread of projected amounts given by bidders on the project was well within the standard 10 percent deviation for projects of that size, a sign of a well-designed project and clear bid specifications.
As part of the process of moving out of the current hall and construction of a new one, borough staff made arrangements to hold meetings for roughly two years at the NPSD ESC, located at Church and Hancock streets and site of that district’s school board meetings.
Wednesday night was the first meeting in that temporary home, and Kirchner and West both complimented the district’s staff for helping ease the transition and assisting borough staff with the move.
Borough Hall will close its doors for the final time at 4:30 p.m. Friday, and borough offices will be closed through Tuesday, Nov. 12 before the temporary municipal complex opens at 8:30 a.m. on Nov. 13. Borough Administration department, Community Development (including permit applications) and Customer Service (Electric and Sewer bill payments) will all be processed at that complex.
For more information on Lansdale Borough and its borough hall move visit www.Lansdale.org or follow @LansdalePA on Twitter.