
Neal Embry Starnes Media
Ken Upchurch with TCU gives the Vestavia Hills City Council on possible increased costs to the Community Spaces plan at a Feb. 10 work session.
Tomorrow, bids will open for the future community building at the old Gold’s Gym next to City Hall, and with that opening, the City Council will soon see just how much of an increase they might have to consider making to the Community Spaces Plan.
Ken Upchurch with TCU, the project manager, spoke to the Council at a Feb. 10 work session, and said bids open on Feb. 13 for the community building, and will open on Feb. 27 for the new New Merkel House and on March 10 for the Crosshaven Drive project. Wald Park Phase 3 will be bid out in mid-April, he said.
There’s been about $700,000 saved already in cost efficiencies, Upchurch said, but adding together the increased cost of already-in-progress projects and the expected bids for the community building, the entire project’s cost has increased by about $10 million from its original budget, passed three years ago.
Part of the $10 million has already been approved, including roughly $5 million in increased costs to the Wald Park pool. The council previously approved increasing the scope of work to add a second pool and upgrade the originally planned pool, said the city’s communications director, Cinnamon McCulley.
Upchurch said the geometry of the larger pool is “really complicated,” and the addition of a second pool and the increased size of the pool house added to the cost.
The projected budget for the community building has increased by about $4 million, and the projected budget for the future New Merkel House has increased by about $365,000.
If the council chooses to keep the community building’s cost from increasing too much from the original budget, bids will have to be lower than expected, or the council will have to make edits to the designs and features of the building.
However, if those features are not built now, they may not ever be built.
“If we do decide to take stuff away from Gold’s [the community center], and we may have to, it’s not a go back and do it later,” said council member Rusty Weaver. “If we take it out, it’s out, and it’s not coming back … because we lose economy of scale, we lose mobilization costs that’ve already been paid. It’s not going to happen, and we need to acknowledge that.”
The council will wait and see what the bids are before making any official decision.
Council member Kimberly Cook said adding the second pool and a second gym at the community center are important for the community and bring value. Upchurch added that those were also needs stressed by the community during public meetings held prior to the project starting a few years ago.
Upchurch said if the bids come in lower, to any degree, than what TCU projects, he will recommend they find a way to pay for it, because “you won’t get that value again.”
City Manager Jeff Downes said the council could choose to pay the extra dollars out of a Community Spaces surplus fund, which is expected to have about $4 million in it, as well as taking advantage of lower interest rates on bonds.
City Council
At the city council meeting following the work session, the council formally approved the sale of Greendale Apartments to Bridgewater Apartments, as part of a three-way swap between the previous owner of Greendale, the city and Bridgewater.
The city will simultaneously buy the property for about $440,000 and then sell the property to Bridgewater for about $305,000 so they do not hold ownership of an apartment complex. The remaining $135,000 that will come out of the city’s budget will go to Bridgewater for the purchase of right-of-way so the city can build a right-turn lane from Crosshaven Drive onto Greendale Road, as part of the widening and sidewalk project that will take place on Crosshaven sometime this year. That project is expected to go to bid sometime in February.
In her report to the council, Cook said she was trying to obtain contact information for homeowner’s associations in order to help keep them informed about city business.
In other business, the Council:
- Approved an electrical easement agreement at Cahaba Heights Park for the future New Merkel House.
- Approved the transfer of an economic development agreement from SCP to LPP II in Liberty Park.
- Moved the March 23 Council meeting to March 30 because of spring break.
An ordinance repealing and replacing the city's flood damage prevention ordinance was introduced at the meeting.