Garage bids come in higher than expected
The lowest bid submitted to build a 300-space parking garage in downtown Uniontown was more than $1 million above the city’s $3.15-million budget for the project. City Council opened bids from four construction companies and all of them were more than $4 million.
“With what we received, we tabled it for review,” Councilman Bob Cerjanec, director of accounts and finance, said.
He said council will call a special meeting next week to decide how to proceed.
Cerjanec said council met with potential bidders prior to this week’s bid opening and told them that the cost of the garage could not exceed $3.15 million.
The four companies that submitted bids were Maccabee Industrial Inc. of Belle Vernon, Uhl Construction of Allison Park, A.G. Cullen Construction of Pittsburgh and Mosites Construction Co. of Pittsburgh.
The bid specifications allowed contractors to submit different bids based on three different completion dates in 2006, but only two of the contractors – Uhl and A.G. Cullen – contained different prices for the different dates.
The lowest overall bid was $4,172,000 from Uhl for final completion on June 30.
Uhl’s other bids were $4,242,205 for completion on May 30 and $4,312,205 for completion on April 30.
Cullen’s bids were $4,434,000 for final completion on June 30, $4,424,000 for completion on May 30 and $4,414,000 for completion on April 30.
Maccabee submitted one bid of $4,246,200 for the June 30 final completion date.
Mosites submitted the same bid of $4,488,000 for final completion on May 30 and June 30.
The city received a $3.15 million grant from the state Redevelopment Capital Assistance Program last year for a variety of downtown revitalization projects, but the state allowed the city to use the entire sum for the garage after Joseph A. Hardy III personally paid for some of the other projects, like the streetscape improvements on Main Street.
The grant required a dollar-for-dollar match from the city.
It used a $2 million bank loan and two in-kind contributions.
The in-kind matches were approximately $1.2 million that Hardy spent on materials used to renovate commercial buildings he purchased and $900,000 that the county spent on renovating the Federal Building.
The garage bids were opened at a special meeting in which other business was also conducted.
Council approved final adoption of an ordinance for a $165,000 10-year loan at 4.30 percent interest to purchase a building at 45-51 E. Penn St. from the estate of Dorothy K. Trusio for a new police station.
Council also authorized Chester Engineering to conduct a traffic study on Arch Street between Main and South streets.
Construction of the parking garage had been called crucial to Hardy’s plans for the redevelopment of downtown. A lack of parking has often been cited as a problem for downtown businesses.