DOWNTOWN ARENA City faces trouble spots with bids

The city is left with no paving proposals if it awards separate contracts.
By ROGER G. SMITH
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The city seemingly has secured one troublesome downtown arena contract but hit a snag on another.
Komar Plumbing Inc. of Boardman bid $345,000 Monday to do underground plumbing. The proposal is $35,000 under the engineer's estimate.
The city bid out the plumbing work on the $40 million arena project twice recently. Those attempts failed to draw proposals that were even close to the estimate, however.
A review of contract specifications led to a revised estimate from $260,000 to $380,000, said Carmen Conglose Jr., city deputy director of public works.
Conglose was relieved to receive a proposal that was less than the estimate.
Company's stipulations
Marucci & amp; Gaffney Excavating of Youngstown also bid on the plumbing work. The company, however, stipulated that the bid was only good if the city also accepted its proposals on two other items opened Monday, demolition and site paving. The company's bid totals $905,530 -- $423,414 for plumbing, $407,455 for paving and $79,661 for demolition of two old buildings.
That arrangement poses a problem if the city decides on separate contracts.
Only one other company, Empire Dismantlement Corp., of Tonawanda, N.Y., submitted any other bid.
Empire bid $87,320 for demolishing an old gas station and the former Goodyear building that border the arena site. Empire also bid $15,000 to do asbestos abatement. The estimate for the work was $160,000.
There were no other paving bids.
The city is left with no paving proposals if it rejects Marucci & amp; Gaffney's package deal and instead awards a plumbing contract to Komar and the demolition job to Empire.
Time's running out
A paving contract is important because time is running short.
Asphalt plants typically shut down by Nov. 15, barring unusually good weather, Conglose said. The idea is to install a base coat before the winter and finish the parking lots next year.
A lack of bidding may be because area contractors are busy with summer work and can't take on new jobs, Conglose said. Also, the arena project is on a tight time line, giving contractors less lead time to start jobs, he said.
Mike Perry, a construction manager for Hunt Construction Group, of Dallas, said he is a little disappointed in local subcontractors. Hunt is managing construction for the developer, Global Entertainment Corp. of Phoenix.
Perry said he's called local companies to clear up any questions that might keep them from bidding. The companies are reviewing specifications and say they will bid, but don't in the end, Perry said.
"It's hard to read somebody's mind," he said.
The city expects to decide later this week on what to do about another trouble spot, the lack of bids for elevators. Twice there have been no bidders.
Conglose said one possibility is turning over the elevators to a subcontractor. Elevator companies are accustomed to dealing with subcontractors, not bidding on contracts directly, he said.
rgsmith@vindy.com