City Council 9/3/19—Administrator Jeff Alvis informed Council that the City had received two bids for the construction of the New City Hall Interior Elevator and other building alterations. The scope of work will include installation of a 2-stop commercial elevator with a machine room in the basement, alterations to the existing first floor restrooms and construction of new second floor restrooms and a corridor to the new second floor egress stairs. He noted that the previous estimate came in at $465,229 in 2018 and that Ausland Group had bid the job at $419,900 and Outlier Construction bid it at $430,990. The staff recommendation of awarding the Ausland Group bid in the amount of $419,900 was approved by council. Ausland Construction, he noted, is the same firm that completed the seismic retrofit of the building in 2016.
On a related topic, Administrator Alvis read the original Mission Statement for the second floor of the Courthouse. Noting that is was philosophical in nature and used at the time for Courthouse grant writing purposes, he stated that any upper level use must enhance the long-term preservation of the building and its campus and promote the cultural interests of the community. He mentioned that this means the second floor could work in terms of Britt Festival offices (a proposal that is being discussed now) and others uses. Alvis said a work/study session will be scheduled in October to look at renderings for upstairs uses other than offices and to provide an opportunity to look at uses discussed six year ago.
In other news, Finance Director Stacey Bray introduced Linda Bennington, who is now serving as the new Administrative Assistant, and Council approved changes to its procedures for filling vacant council posts with a second reading of an ordinance.