By ZEINAB NAJM
Sunday Times Newspapers
RIVERVIEW — The entrance sign for Young Patriots Park and the Riverview Veterans Memorial Library will soon be replaced after the City Council unanimously awarded the bid during its Oct. 4 meeting.
C&S Construction Management won the bid in the amount of $36,3000 plus a 5 percent contingency in the amount of $1,815. Engineering fees with C.E.Raines Co. were also authorized for $2,200.
The cost of the project will be shared between the city and the library, in a 67-33 ration, according to the agenda item. A budget amendment also was approved by the council to carry forward the funds for the city’s portion from the previous budget year into this fiscal year.
Currently, there is a wood sign at the library entrance which will be changed to reflect the park and library for visitors. Discussions on the sign have been about two years in the making, City Manager Doug Drysdale said, with COVID-19 causing a delay.
On March 1, the council authorized the solicitation of bids for the replacement of the entrance sign with the bids from two vendors opened May 20.
At that time, the amounts of the bid were in excess of the allocated funds for the sign, so city staff consulted with the city engineer and library commission on the scope of the work, the agenda item said. Negotiations took place with the low bidder to provide only the construction of the sign.
Staff will be responsible for the removal of the existing sign and landscaping, installation of lighting, and landscaping restoration.
Councilman Chuck Norton asked if the new sign already had a lot of money invested in it. Drysdale said he wasn’t sure about how much money from the engineering side, but that a lot of time had been spent during the process.
Norton and Councilman James Trombley asked if the new sign at the entrance would be electronic, which Mayor Andrew Swift responded by saying it would not be.
“That’s what we looked at originally and the cost estimates that we got were three times as much as this was at that time being that the library is paying a portion of this — met with library chair and they were happy to have the other kind of sign to save money,” Drysdale said.
(Zeinab Najm can be reached at [email protected].)