Keene engineer seeks design contract to address longstanding City Hall structural issues

City engineering staff told the Finance, Organization and Personnel Committee that City Hall has long-standing structural issues dating to a 2017 inspection and subsequent updates and partial repairs. The engineering division issued a request for proposals to update the structural assessment and prepare construction-ready contract documents for repairs; staff said only one firm submitted a proposal.

City Engineer Brian Ruff (first identified during the meeting) recapped the history: a 2017 inspection that "identified significant deficiencies," a 2022 assessment and contract documents by DuBois & King, and partial implementation in 2023-24 that left a majority of repairs outstanding. Ruff described a three-phase approach (phase A immediate, phase B urgent but not immediate, phase C longer-term) and said the current work will cover the majority of repairs though not necessarily all.

Ruff told the committee staff negotiated the sole responder's fee down from about $158,000 to $130,000. A committee member moved to recommend that the city manager be authorized to execute an agreement with the firm named in the motion (transcript shows inconsistent spellings recorded as "Michael Petrovich" and "Michael Polcovic" in successive lines) for City Hall structural design (contract 65J0002B), not to exceed $130,000. The motion was seconded and approved unanimously.

Next steps staff identified include finalizing the agreement, producing bid-ready contract documents, and advertising construction bids with the aim of opening bids early next year.