Advisory board backs $129,160 paving contract and $9,551 rhino-area change order

At its meeting, the Mesco Park Zoo and Botanic Garden Advisory Board recommended that the parks board approve a contract with Dike Brothers for paving and path improvements, and it recommended approval of a change order to a rhino‑area project.

Eric Beck said Dike Brothers was the only bidder and met the qualifications; their price for the paving and pathway improvements was $129,160. Beck described scope items that include replacing buckled or trip‑hazard asphalt with concrete, widening the path at the giraffe exhibit's interactive area and addressing bumps and cracks throughout the park. "Dike Brothers was the lowest qualified bidder on those items," he said, adding that the work was planned to begin after Boot the Zoo.

The board moved and approved a recommendation to execute the contract to the parks board by voice vote.

Beck also presented change order number 1 for the rhino area (transcript references 'Doug Brothers' for the contract name). The change order totaled $9,551 for fabrication and installation of header steel tubes omitted from construction drawings; Beck provided a cost breakdown (materials ~$3,000, labor ~$1,200 and painting listed in the transcript) and said the change increased the project's total to $703,031. "We found money in our existing budget this year for capital," Beck said.

Board members asked whether the rhino project was complete; Beck said it was essentially finished aside from punch‑list items once the animal settles. A motion to recommend approval of change order number 1 to the parks board was moved, seconded and approved by voice vote.

The advisory board did not itself award either contract; it forwarded recommendations to the parks board for final approval. The transcript uses both 'Dike Brothers' and 'Doug Brothers' in different places; the board based its actions on the documents and bid openings presented at the parks board meeting, as reported by staff.