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Carbondale parks director: Aquatic center remains on schedule despite winter-related costs and value-engineering credits
Summary
Parks Director Eric Brenlager told the Carbondale Parks & Recreation Commission that the new Aquatic Center is on schedule. Winter-condition costs and value-engineering credits have affected contingency accounting; the town is continuing a capital campaign to meet remaining funding targets.
Eric Brenlager, Carbondale parks and recreation director, told the Parks and Recreation Commission on Feb. 2025 that construction of the town's new Aquatic Center is proceeding on schedule and that monthly owner-architect-contractor meetings are driving a steady flow of decisions and change orders.
Brenlager said the contractor's monthly update (Wember, the owner's representative) and a four-week schedule are now included in the commission packet to provide near-term detail on work and inspections. He described recent site work, including forming and rebar for the entertainment pool, plumbing work, excavation of the spa, and a recently completed septic/sewer reconnection that had to be relocated across the project footprint to serve a neighboring Forest Service project.
"We are still on schedule," Brenlager said, adding that the team has been managing concrete curing and winter thaw/heat tent work so pours can proceed during intermittent cold and moisture. He also described how the project logs weather-related costs in the construction contingency rather than as a budget overrun.
The packet itemizes recent change-order activity. Brenlager said the project is posting a contractor credit of $120,004.86 that will be applied to the owner's contingency, and that a winter-conditions charge of about $17,000 will be deducted from the approved construction contingency. He described a separate value-engineering effort that may produce credits by substituting lower-cost materials or fixtures where acceptable.
Commissioners asked about fundraising and the capital campaign. Brenlager said the town's capital-campaign goal for the Aquatic Center is $2.5 million; the budget currently carries $1.6 million in committed town funding and the campaign is working to close the remaining gap. The packet shows a larger target for total project-related fundraising; Brenlager said detailed fundraising tallies are included in the project budget materials in the packet.
Brenlager emphasized the project's weekly coordination meetings and their role in identifying lead times, contingency needs and constructability decisions that keep the schedule moving. He invited commissioners to review the Wember photo log and the four-week schedule in monthly packets and asked whether that level of near-term scheduling information is useful to the commission.
Commissioners asked follow-up questions about weather impacts on schedule and the source of contingency funds; Brenlager reiterated that the winter-related costs are being covered from the construction contingency and that other change orders are being tracked in the budget summary included in the packet.
