Park-Porter renovation costs cause clash

Tuesday, August 22, 2006 Commissioner Polivka was told that renovation estimates exceed $4 million. By ED RUNYAN VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF WARREN — Trumbull County Commissioners Dan Polivka and Paul Heltzel clashed over cost of the Park-Porter building renovation Tuesday, though the tone was less confrontational than in past weeks. Warren architect Bruce Sekanick attended the commissioners' work session to answer questions about the renovation. The project will provide space at Park Avenue and Porter Street downtown for the county's Department of Job and Family Services and One-Stop Jobs offices. The offices are now in rented spaces on South Park Avenue and West Market street. Polivka asked Sekanick several questions about how he arrived at the estimate of renovation costing $2.5 million to $2.7 million, and what guarantees Polivka could get that the price would not skyrocket. Polivka said after the meeting he became suspicious of the cost estimates Sekanick provided to the commissioners last month. That's because former county Administrator Tony Carson Jr. had told him that the estimates were running at more than $4 million. Sekanick did acknowledge that his company had prepared three sets of estimates, one of which was as high as $4.5 million — but said that estimate was for "high-end office space." Monitoring project Polivka said he will continue to monitor the project during its construction to make sure Sekanick is not giving low estimates. Polivka voted against purchase of the Park-Porter building late last year. He maintains that the Gibson Building on East Market Street would have been the better choice, even though its purchase price was millions higher than the older Park-Porter building. "Just to end the conspiracy theories, let me ask you the $5 million question," Heltzel said to Sekanick. "At $2.7 million, how does [Park-Porter] compare to the present facility we are using for the Job and Family Services?" Sekanick responded, "It'll be a thousand times better." "Do you have any other conspiracy theories, Dan, that you want to get out of your gut?" Heltzel asked. "Do you still feel the Gibson Building was the better purchase for this building?" Polivka asked Sekanick. "I can't really say that," Sekanick answered. 'A good place to work' The bottom line, Sekanick said of choosing the Park Porter building, is that "It will be a good place to work. It'll provide the services necessary, but we're not going to overspend." Sekanick said one way to prevent cost overruns is make contractors bidding on the general, electrical, mechanical and plumbing contracts be prequalified, meaning they have to meet certain requirements before they can bid on the jobs. Prequalifying usually reduces the number of bidders but guarantees that the bidders have adequate experience. "It indicates [the contractors] have the experience to come in on budget and on time," Sekanick said. Fines will be written into contracts charging contractors $50,000 to $70,000 per month if deadlines are missed, Sekanick said. Completion date for the project is July 1, 2007, with bids being accepted around Dec. 1 and awarded a couple of weeks later, he said. runyan@vindy.com