Pinetop Lakeside details costs, timelines for police building, Top of the Woods and Mountain Meadow projects

Pinetop Lakeside public works officials on Thursday outlined progress, remaining work and funding gaps for several capital projects, saying the town has spent substantially more than the original contractor estimates on some work and is refining accounting practices to improve transparency.

"The Sierra Building Systems contract was $4,499,000," Public Works presenter Molina told the council, and later reported total spending on the police department project of $6,280,410.76 to date. Molina said that figure includes contractor work plus in-house civil work, furniture, records storage and other costs the town absorbed.

Molina identified remaining items that affect completion timing and final cost: manufacturer-delayed cell doors (quoted at $36,433 and included in the contract balance), installation of ballistic peep holes and interview-room view lights (estimated at $2,671.69 and $834.18 respectively), and retention-pond riprap requiring excavator work (estimate about $8,500). The PD project’s contractor retention/remaining balance was stated as roughly $61,914; Molina said some of the $36,433 cell-door work is part of that balance.

Councilor Heisler pressed for clarity about how the town is accounting for in‑house labor and equipment. Finance Director Gabe and Molina said the town’s financial system does not currently track project accounting by default, producing journal-entry transfers that make it hard to reconcile sources for each project. "We're looking at doing some revamping within finance... project based tracking within our accounting system," Gabe said, describing planned changes to show the difference between outside vendor dollars and the town’s internal resource allocations.

On the Top of the Woods project, Molina said the engineer's preliminary estimate was $1,908,985 (resolution 23‑16‑69 referenced) and the town has spent $674,017.29 to date; remaining riprap, gate signage and an optional survey could add roughly $11,500. He estimated the project about 98% complete and said final asphalt work will wait until April because moisture currently prevents compaction.

The Mountain Meadow water-storage tank also faced procurement changes. Molina said the original engineer estimate for the project was $572,618, but the town could not secure bids for a hot‑dipped galvanized tank and instead procured a fused-glass exterior tank under Resolution 24‑17‑46 for $429,476. Including in‑house foundation work, he said $480,810.03 has been spent; he estimated just under $400,000 remaining, subject to engineering revisions and scope reductions. The tank holds 100,000 gallons, Molina said, and the town is awaiting final reimbursement on a WIFA/WIPA grant it had applied to the project.

Molina also reviewed the Mountain Meadow ADA path and parking-lot project, which originally sought about $336,648 in grant funding and was later increased to $467,897. Nova Solutions shows $1,025,656.79 spent to date, Molina said, a number he attributed to added drainage and detention-pond work not originally in the engineered plans. He estimated remaining paving, lighting and parking work at about $93,952 and assessed the project as approximately 75% complete.

Council members asked follow-up questions about when budgets and project-level tracking would be available. Molina said he keeps spreadsheets for projects and will share a detailed breakdown for the PD building, and Gabe said future council approvals will include a "total cost not to exceed" for entire projects, not just individual contracts.

The council did not vote on additional funding Thursday; Molina and finance staff said they will bring further details and proposed budget adjustments as needed ahead of the budget process.