SHENANGO LIBRARY New bids save cash for city

The new base bid came in $355,000 lower than the earlier bid on the job.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
SHARON, Pa. -- Rebidding the general construction portion of the Shenango Valley Community Library renovation project appears to have paid off big for the city.
Bids opened on the job June 3 showed the lowest general construction proposal at $1,345,000, nearly $100,000 higher than the total money allocated to the project.
City officials and HHSDR of Sharon, the project architect, said the bids for heating and ventilating ($108,300 from Sheehan Plumbing & amp; Heating of Sharpsville) and electrical work ($59,000 from Penn-Ohio Electric of Masury) were where they should be.
City council decided to put those two bids on hold and rebid the general construction contract.
The move worked out because the new low base bid for general construction came in Wednesday at $989,723 from Rien Construction of Brookfield. There are also some bid alternates that could lower that price by an additional $55,000.
Rien was not among the original bidders on June 3.
Closer figures
The new number puts the project close to the ballpark estimates, said Greer Hayden of HHSDR.
He said some items in the original general construction specifications were eliminated to help cut the cost for the second round of bids. That included new aluminum windows, hollow core doors and bird netting to keep pigeons from roosting in the lower level of the parking lot.
Hayden said he will have a contract award proposal ready for city council to consider at its July 28 meeting.
The city secured a $625,000 state grant to replace the two-tier parking deck at the library and decided to add an equal amount of money borrowed through a bond issue to expand the job to include needed improvements to the library itself.
Some of that work includes restoring exterior brick on the library, repairing slate trim around the building exterior and upgrading the existing elevator.