Town Center Green's over-budget bids prompt rethink

Might you have a few thousand in spare change under the sofa cushions or rattling around the cupholders of your Ferrari?

Longboat Key would like a word.

The prompt construction of the stage at Town Center Green could rest in the balance of a few more private donors joining Paul and Sarah Karon’s $500,000 pledge in helping pay for the project after the town’s two contract bids for the site work and stage construction came in  over budget this month.

And now town leaders have half the options after one of the contractors, Stellar Development Inc., notified staff first of a six-figure error in its bid and then on Monday withdrew entirely, leaving only Jon Swift Construction’s $2.23 million bid, which is about $887,000 over the town’s budget.

Stellar’s withdrawn bid was $2.06 million.

Sixty-one contractors viewed the town’s bid solicitation. Bids were opened on June 9.

"At the time, we were actually impressed that two bid because it is an extremely busy time," said Public Works Director Isaac Brownman. "There’s a lot of construction work going on."

The town sought a contractor to not only build the centerpiece stage on the Town Center Green property but also raise the level of the largely featureless acreage and add walkways, bathrooms, utilities, a retention pond suitable to serve the runoff of the land and a library/community center the town is also hoping to build.

Swift’s $1.44 million bid for that site work was about $477,000 over budget, and the stage and pavilion bid was about $780,000, about $360,000 over budget.

Faced with the options of rebidding the project, awarding the site-work contract only and putting off work on the stage or moving ahead with the site work and seeking to round up additional private donors, Town Commissioners chose the latter on Monday, hoping to hear encouraging news by July 1, their final meeting before their summer hiatus.

Jim Brown of the Longboat Key Foundation said he would get started immediately making some contacts, but the recent downturn of the stock market has made some potential donors wary.  

"We have an election in November, and everybody is wondering which way it’s going to go," he said. "Everybody is being cautious in terms of raising funds. The way the economy is going right now, it affects people who were willing to donate."

He said that in recent days he and Mayor Ken Schneier spoke with one such person who "said they’d love to, but right now, they’ve got other problems, and they did donate, what did they give, $2,000?" 

Schneier then remarked, "We only need 100 of those."

Brown and several commissioners said waiting longer to proceed or rebidding the project soon would likely result in the same outcome — or worse. Adding to commissioners’ concerns was the potential for not only losing momentum on a high-priority project but also that momentum loss’ effect on ongoing work with Sarasota County on a possible library/community center building on the same land.

In a nonbinding show of consensus, commissioners by a vote of 6-1 signaled their desire to push forward toward a possible vote July 1 to amend the 2023 budget to account for the site-work budget overage and try to round up additional private commitments to keep the project on track.

Commissioner Sherry Dominick, who opposed the idea, said she was uncomfortable with moving ahead with a project on which one viable bid had been received — one that was over budget. Commissioner BJ Bishop supported moving ahead and suggested commissioners should consider donating personal funds to the cause.

"I just think we’re in a climate now where we shouldn’t expect it to get better," Commissioner Mike Haycock said. "I don’t want to see this project delayed for three years for all the reasons everybody stated, so we have the funds. They’re just sitting there — they’re not doing the taxpayers any good by sitting in our budget. So I thing we should find the funds to go ahead. On the stage, it’s 15 phone calls, and we’re going to know within a week whether we got a shot at getting the money or not — I don’t think anybody has to study this. They’re either going to say yes or no."