DOWNTOWN ARENA Board OKs payment for overrun

Poor coordination left the site short of two required fire hydrants.
By ROGER G. SMITH
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The first change orders for the downtown arena are in, and they're substantial.
City officials say the overruns could have been much worse.
The city's board of control approved today additional payment of $219,756 to Marucci & amp; Gaffney Excavating of Youngstown. The spending is for removal of unknown underground debris such as rocks, bricks and foundations from old steel mill buildings.
The city had a $1.34 million contract with Marucci & amp; Gaffney to prepare the site between the Market Street and South Avenue bridges for the $42 million, 5,500-seat arena.
The city expected extra work beyond what the contract called for, said Carmen Conglose Jr., deputy director of public works. Soil borings were done to gain a handle on what's underground. The total amount that needed to be removed, however, was hard to gauge, he said.
Renegotiated
The city factored possible extra work into its original contract by also seeking bids for removing debris and adding backfill, he said. The city, however, renegotiated with Marucci & amp; Gaffney to handle the extra work.
Following the per-hour labor costs and per-cubic-yard backfill costs in the contract would have cost the city four to five times more, Conglose said. Rebidding the extra work would have taken weeks, delaying the project and prompting damage claims from contractors, he said.
The city sometimes runs into extra site preparation costs on industrial parks of 50 percent to 80 percent, said David Bozanich, city finance director.
The city is pleased the arena site overrun amounted to only about 16 percent of the original contract, he said.
Overruns will be made up with money saved by contracts on other parts of the project that have come in under budget, Bozanich said. Most construction contracts have contingencies of about 10 percent built in, he said.
Fire hydrants
The control board also approved a $17,284 payment to Marucci & amp; Gaffney to install two additional fire hydrants and lines on the site.
The city fire department required the additional hydrants, which weren't part of an original $1.5 million utilities contract.
Lack of coordination between the city building and fire departments left the hydrants out of the utilities contract. The contract was bid out before the fire department inspected the plans to catch the missing hydrants, Conglose said.
Conglose said he expects additional change orders in the near future, though not the size of the site preparation change.
The control board also approved a contract with developer Global Entertainment Marketing Systems of Phoenix to market the arena.
The contract outlines Global's duties, from securing advertising, sponsorships and naming rights to selling luxury boxes, premium seats and regular tickets.
Global will receive a variety of commissions based on how much revenue it raises.
rgsmith@vindy.com