La Porte council approves paging system, design amendments and $22.5 million City Hall construction GMP

The La Porte City Council on Tuesday approved a set of capital and infrastructure items: purchase and installation of a US Digital paging system for fire stations, a design amendment for the recreation and fitness center, a design amendment for Public Works facility improvements, and a guaranteed maximum price (GMP) for the new City Hall construction.

City staff presented the paging-system recommendation as a replacement for an aging analog paging arrangement that has produced missed alerts and reliability problems. "We have experienced repeated failures, long along the way with missed alerts during emergencies, delayed response times, which increase the risk to public safety and the community," a City staff presenter said while outlining the US Digital (Honeywell) design. The quote included cost detail: equipment and installation of $378,149.69 plus a 5% contingency of $18,907.50, for total authorization of $397,057.19 under HGAC contract EC07-23. Councilmember Englekin moved approval; the motion passed.

Separately, the council approved a $52,500 amendment to the professional services agreement with PGAL Incorporated for additional design work on the recreation and fitness center Phase 2 project. Staff said the amendment covers exterior improvements and additional design services to address recent failures of the building’s EIFS and other exterior repairs; the amendment raises the architect’s total design fee to $275,000 and identifies an estimated Phase 2 construction cost of roughly $300,000–$350,000 for the exterior work. The motion to approve was made by Mr. Guerra and seconded by Mr. McAuley; the motion carried.

Council also authorized a design-proposal amendment not to exceed $884,440 with BRW Architects for Public Works facility improvements. Staff described a change from a renovation approach to constructing a larger new building with expanded equipment service shop, parts storage, and material storage, requiring additional civil, structural and electrical design. Council approved the amendment after a staff presentation and a motion from Councilmember Englekin.

The largest single action on the agenda was approval of the guaranteed maximum price for the new La Porte City Hall. The city awarded a GMP amendment to the construction-manager-at-risk contract with Bellows Construction totaling $22,515,932 for construction costs, general conditions, profit and overhead. City staff and BRW Architects reviewed the project scope, schedule and cost-reduction measures taken to reach the current GMP. "The project is about 36,000 square feet in a two-story building," the architect said, and the total project estimate presented to council included architectural fees, FF&E, materials testing and an owner contingency for a total estimate in the $27–29 million range. Council approved the GMP by recorded hand vote; members recorded voting in favor included McLaren, Martin, McAuley, Bentley and Englefield; the motion carried.

Why it matters

The paging-system purchase addresses an identified emergency-notification reliability gap in La Porte Fire Department operations and includes redundancy features staff said will reduce missed alerts. The City Hall GMP launches a multi-year construction project that consolidates departments into a modern facility and represents the largest single capital expenditure approved at this meeting.

Next steps and implementation

Procurement and contract-execution steps for each item will be handled by the appropriate departments: Fire/Public Safety for the paging system, Parks & Recreation for the recreation center design work, Public Works for the facility amendment, and the city’s project management team and Bellows Construction for City Hall construction. Staff flagged remaining design interfaces (for IT, utilities and site phasing) that will be coordinated during construction.