Council keeping project pros

By AUBRIE GEORGE | The Moorestown Sun

Professionals from Kitchen and Associates and Greyhawk Construction will take the next five weeks to put together a plan for a town hall project that meets Council’s original budget goal of about $11.7 million in construction costs.

Last week, Council met with the team of professionals to hash out a plan after bids for the project came in several million over budget.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Council told the professionals to outline a plan that meets its original budgetary goals while aiming to meet the municipal needs of the township administration, police department and library.

Before last week, it was unknown whether the township would continue to work with the current professional team, but Council members decided that keeping the team on board would be cost effective.

Deputy Mayor John Button, Council’s liaison to the consulting team for the town hall project, said the team of professionals was selected for their track record and credibility.

“From my perspective, jumping off the horse we rode to this point is probably a poor thing to do,” Button said.

He said keeping the team would mean money the township has spent so far on things such as permits and other fees would not be wasted.

Council also decided last week that Township Manager Chris Schultz would be in charge of managing the project overall, with oversight, as needed, from Council.

Members said Schultz would be in charge of deeming what elements of the project design are necessary and which the township could do without.

Before last week’s meeting, members of the professional team presented Council with ways the project may be able to be scaled down to save costs.

The team discussed bringing the square footage of the project back down to the originally planned 61,000 square feet. The project that went out to bid included an additional 5,000 square feet because, professionals said, the design had required walls to be expanded to fit programmatic desires and to fit functions moved from one building to the other.

Other suggested changes included changing a full-brick building front to one that is half brick and half stucco, eliminating a teen center, three-story book stack and reading room at the library, and moving some functions that had been moved back to their original places in order to save on space and complexity of the design, which they said drove up costs in the bidding process.

With the full list of suggested changes, the team of professionals estimated bids could come in anywhere from $11.3 million to $12.7 million.

Council decided to charge the team with the task of showing it the project it would get for $11.7 million. Once professionals come back to Council with that plan, officials will decide whether or not that plan is sufficient to meet the municipal needs of the township. If it does not, they will decide what they need to do to construct a project that does meet their needs.

Should Council decide to re-bid the contract after hearing the professional team’s new plan in August, professionals said the project could be ready to go out to bid again in October with a notice to proceed to the selected bidder going out in November. The project would then take about 20 months to complete, with an anticipated end date of summer 2012.

It has already been established that, if re-bid, the project will not include a project labor agreement, as the original bids requirements had.

The professional team is scheduled to present its findings to Council at the Aug.23 regular Council meeting.