Roof proposals for Youngstown court higher than expected
YOUNGSTOWN
The first improvement project to relocate municipal court to the city hall annex didn’t go well, with the only two proposals for roof-replacement work significantly higher than the city’s estimate.
The city charter doesn’t permit Youngstown to award a contract for work when the proposals are more than the estimate.
“We’ll review the bids; we’ll have to figure out what happened” with the high proposals, said Charles Shasho, deputy director of the city’s public-works department. “It wasn’t just a little over the estimate.”
The city estimate was $375,000. The lower proposal from SRI Roofing and Sheet Metal of New Castle, Pa., was $457,000. The other proposal of $484,000 came from Boak & Sons of Austintown. The proposals were opened Friday.
The city will determine if “value engineering” can be done with this project, Shasho said. He explained the term means ways to reduce the project’s costs by using less-expensive materials or making other cost-cutting savings.
“There are no alternates” to the roof project, said Ray Jaminet, whose architectural firm is designing the court.
Jaminet set up a Monday meeting with officials from SRI and Paul J. Ricciuti, the project manager, to discuss how to reduce costs.
When asked about negotiating cost reductions to a project with a company that hasn’t been hired to do a job for the city, Shasho said he believed it happened once to the best of his knowledge.
Jaminet said five contractors picked up bid packages for the work, and he plans to call those who didn’t submit proposals.
When asked if the other three companies didn’t make proposals because the project’s cost was too high compared with the estimate, Jaminet said, “That’s very possible.”
The city wants the roof work done in the fall so interior improvements can be done during the winter.
“Whatever we do, we’ll do it fast,” Shasho said.
That includes seeking proposals for the roof work again, he said.
The overall project is expected to cost $7,750,000 with the court relocation done by late 2017.
The dispute over the court facilities goes back about 15 years.
An agreement in June between the three branches of government came six years after the judges filed a complaint with the Ohio Supreme Court over the court’s conditions on the second floor of city hall, 26 S. Phelps St., and demanded an improved facility. The Supreme Court officially dismissed the case last week.