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Council to review city hall contractors
By DAVE SHELTON
Article published on Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2008 |
BELLEAIR BEACH – The City Council and its ad hoc building committee will meet Jan. 17 at 6:30 p.m. to review the applications of eight contractors who want to bid on the new $3 million city hall. Interested citizens are urged to attend.
Five will be chosen to submit bids on the project that will replace the city’s failing 50-year-old octagonal meeting room, office space and public works garage.
During the council’s Jan. 7 meeting, Councilwoman Mary Schoonover voiced concern over the ability of the public to bring objections to any of the contractors to the city’s attention. Mayor Lynn Rives and Councilman Rob Baldwin assured her that the public could raise questions about any of the contractors several times before a contract is signed. Baldwin said the public may attend the building committee’s meeting when all eight resumes would be reviewed openly. Rives added that the public, again, could voice any issues with a contractor when the council meets to select one from the list for a contract after bids have been received. He added that City Manager Nancy McCollum was going to carefully check the references provided by each candidate.
Schoonover cautioned that no builder would provide references that would prove to be negative. She suggested the list of prospective bidders be made available to the public on the city’s official Web site, www.cityofbelleairbeach.com.
The following are the nine who submitted Requests For Qualification:
• Bandes Construction Company, Dunedin; Biltmore Construction, Belleair; Peter Brown Construction, Clearwater; Caladesi Construction, Largo; Creative Contractors, Clearwater; Honors Contractors, Oldsmar; Southern Construction Group, Altamonte Springs; Tower OHL Group, Bradenton; and Voeller Construction, Palm Harbor.
McCollum said Voeller’s submission was 15 minutes late and was disqualified for that reason.
City staff is currently moving offices into a former home on adjacent Cedar Drive that will serve as the city hall for the next 12 to 18 months. While awaiting word from the state Attorney General’s office on whether city meetings may be conducted outside of city limits, no decision has been made on where meetings will be held.
McCollum has said she has looked at meeting spaces in local condominiums and in facilities of adjacent municipalities. State law prohibits governing bodies from meeting outside of their jurisdictions, but City Attorney Paul Marino said he believes a municipality may meet outside city limits if only on a temporary basis.
The problem arises because there are few available meeting spaces within the city that could accommodate crowds or the city’s video and audio recording equipment.
Replacing city hall has been discussed for years as the existing structure has insect and weather damage, no longer meets building codes and staff space is limited.
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Article published on Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2008
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