Council directs staff to prepare contract after fire station bids; city staff recommends Lawler Corporation

The Washington City Council discussed bids for construction of Fire Station No. 1 and asked city staff to prepare a contract proposal for the council to consider at the next meeting.

City Administrator Darren said, "In your packet, there is a letter of a recommendation from, the fire department for myself, for the Station 1 construction award. There is no contract. We wanna have a discussion first and then, and then issue out a direction so that we can get a contract from the contractors." The administration and fire department reviewed bids opened Dec. 19 and interviewed the four lowest bidders.

The four low bids were Cahill Construction ($5,020,000), Wright Construction Services ($5,034,076), Bombshell Construction ($5,099,000) and Lawler Corporation ($5,120,200). After reference checks and interviews, staff recommended Lawler Corporation. The staff recommendation cited Lawler's recent experience building fire stations, local subcontractor usage and the contractor's commitment to site cleanliness. Darren told the council there is a $100,000 change-order contingency included in the cited construction price, and staff hopes to value-engineer at least $100,000 out of the total.

Chief Skorney and staff said mobilization is anticipated around Feb. 1 and architects estimate roughly a 13-month schedule to substantial completion; staff cautioned long lead times for equipment such as generators and RTUs could extend final completion. The department said the pumper assigned to the new station will be delivered later this year (vendor estimate July/August) and the existing pumper at headquarters would move to the new station.

Andy Daub, an owner of Bombshell Construction, addressed the council after the staff recommendation. He said his company was lower than Lawler on price and that Bombshell is a fully bonded, union shop with local subcontractors and staffed superintendents. "I'm not here to bash anybody," Daub said. "We do have we did supply a schedule. I do have project managers, superintendents allotted to this job. This job would be extremely important to me." Several council members thanked him for coming and encouraged him to bid on future projects.

Councilmember Joel moved, with a second from Councilmember Mark, to ask Darren and his staff to prepare a contract proposal for the next council meeting. The motion passed on a voice vote.

The contract and ordinance will appear on the Jan. 21 council meeting packet for formal approval; staff said they would return a formal contract document for council action.