Glenarden council hears contractor briefing, agrees to pursue police-station feasibility study

Glenarden City Council members heard a presentation on Monday from Gordian and Nichols Contracting about using a Maryland Department of General Services job-order contracting vehicle and moved to advance a feasibility study for a new or expanded police station, with additional work proposed for an elevator and renovations to the city nutrition center.

The presentation opened with Robin Merhut, Gordian representative, describing the state contract vehicle and its benefits for municipalities. “We invented job order contracting in the 80s,” Merhut said, explaining the umbrella contract model and a preset task catalog that Gordian administers for the Maryland Department of General Services. Jerry Robinson, account manager for Nichols Contracting, outlined that Nichols had prepared a rough-order-of-magnitude cost and a baseline feasibility proposal for the police-station project and identified elevator and nutrition-center work as related scopes.

The council sought clarity on scope and cost. Robinson said the proposed feasibility study is conceptual and intended to determine what the city can afford and what is feasible on…