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Council rejects police station construction bids, shifts to building evaluations and requests HUD guidance
Summary
After bids for a new public safety building exceeded the city—9s budget, the Caribou City Council voted to reject all bids and directed staff to pursue evaluation of existing building refurbishment and to request HUD approval to change the scope of previously awarded CPF funding.
The Caribou City Council on Sept. 15 unanimously rejected all construction bids received June 18 for a proposed new public safety building after the bids and subsequent value-engineering recommendations remained above the city—9s target budget. The council accepted a recommendation from the Public Safety Building Committee to explore refurbishment of existing buildings instead of new construction.
Committee materials reviewed at the meeting said all bids exceeded the desired budget even after value-engineering input from the low bidder, Lane Casey Contractors of Augusta, Maine. The committee reported it had consulted Artifex and the design team (sometimes referenced as Artifex and Mans Woodward) on options and had met twice to evaluate recommendations before forwarding the rejection to the council.
Manager Thompson reported staff contacted the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development9s Boston office to determine how a change in scope from new construction to renovation would affect the $2,500,000 in CPF funding secured with assistance from Senator Collins9s office. Thompson said HUD indicated the city could change scope but would need to revise the application and budget.
The council also voted to advertise a request for qualifications (RFQ) and fee proposal for a firm to assist the city with evaluation of available buildings and to separate that evaluation from subsequent architectural/engineering renovation work so the assessment remains impartial. Councilors discussed limiting the RFQ scope to a short list of candidate properties, and asked staff to avoid bundling evaluation and renovation design in a single procurement.
Councilors also approved providing seven days9notice to terminate the existing contract with Artifex if the city proceeds with the new direction. The termination motion cited paragraph 9.4 of the contract.
"Given that all the bids exceeded the desired budget and that the final value-engineering recommendations also remained above the desired budget, the committee recommends rejecting all bids," the committee report states.
The council voted in favor of rejecting bids, issuing the RFQ conditioned on HUD approval of scope change, and providing notice to end the Artifex contract.
The committee and council said staff will continue to coordinate with HUD and work to identify and then evaluate a short list of candidate properties for potential refurbishment and adaptive reuse.
