The City of Fitchburg could save almost $1 million after bids for the new Fitchburg Public Library were approved at the last city council meeting.
The Fitchburg City Council unanimously approved 10 of the 11 sealed bids for the new library at Tuesday’s meeting. Collectively, the bids came back at about $8.96 million.
"Because of the favorable bids that we got, the total cost of the project is still coming in under the $10 million budget if we don't use all of the contingency, and that includes the geothermal," Mayor Jay Allen said. "The board and all the people working on this have done an incredible job to make this happen and to make it happen within the budget."
Because of a technicality with the submission process, the 11th contract, for about $400,000 worth of landscaping, did not have a bidder and will be rebid. But that is not expected to slow down the opening of the building, set for spring or summer of 2011.
J.P. Cullen Construction will have the largest project, the site preparation, structural and enclosure work for the project. Its bid came in at 17.6 percent less than the construction manager’s estimate, at about $4.3 million.
Tri-North builders will manage the carpentry work at a cost of about $946,000. City official said extra mill work is required for this part of the project, which caused Tri-North's bid to be 72.5 percent higher than the construction manager's estimate.
The heating, ventilation and air conditioning system will be installed by North American Mechanical, Inc. at a cost of nearly $1.6 million, about 6 percent higher than the construction manager's estimate.
Staff Electric was chosen to do the electrical work, at a cost of about $1 million. It includes the use of Square D electrical equipment rather than Siemens equipment, which the city asked not to use because of past problems.
Staff Electric included Siemens products and was the lowest overall bidder, while Faith Technologies was the lowest bidder that included Square D in its base bid. However, the city was able to get Staff Electric to agree to use Square D products in its original bid.
Other bids were:
* Hallmark Drywall for interior framing, drywall and painting at an estimated cost of $374,000, 3 percent higher than projected.
* Flooring by Sergennian’s, at an estimated cost of about $223,000 (9 percent lower).
* Sullivan Brothers, Inc. for the ceilings, $86,000 (19 percent lower).
* Kone Inc., for elevators, $185,000 (6 percent lower).
* Hooper Corporation for plumbing, $161,000 (10 percent higher).
* H.J. Pertzborn for fire protection, $88,000 (8 percent less).
The landscaping contract, estimated at $418,000, received no bids and will be reposted.
Fitchburg Utility project engineer Tracy Voss said the lack of bids was likely a procedural error and that bids were supposed to be turned in to the city. She said J.P. Cullen received landscaping bids, but that none were given to the city.
Voters approved construction but not operations of a $14 million building in a 2008 referendum, and the Common Council approved plans for the building – including a roughly $500,000 geothermal heating and cooling system – in January.
Of the $14 million, $4 million must come from private donations. The library has so far received two $1 million donations, and Tuesday the council announced one more donation to bring the total to about $3 million.
The Evjue Foundation, the charitable arm of Capital Newspapers, has agreed to donate $75,000.
"It's nice to be able to participate to things that you know are going to work well, grow and be handled well by the people that use it," John Lussier, president of the foundation, said after presenting the donation to the council.
Several council members expressed concern over what would happen if the project falls short with donations. Allen said he expects that the rest of the donations will come in once the project gets under way.
