Clintonville OKs design contract

By Bert Lehman

Conceptual design for Clintonville’s proposed swimming pond. Rendering by CRS Design

The city of Clintonville authorized the city administrator to sign a contract for engineering services for a swimming pond.

The approval came when the city council met on June 9.

The cost of the engineering services is not to exceed $72,000, with the funds coming from the Outdoor Swimming Facility capital account.

Ald. Ben Huber voted no.

In February, the Clintonville Parks and Recreation Committee recommended the city approve a contract with CRS Design to design a swimming pond for a cost of $19,670.

At that time, the city did not seek bids because CRS Design had originally done a preliminary plan for a swimming pond, so it was familiar with the project.

The Clintonville Finance Committee did not approve the design services contract with CRS Design at that time because the committee wanted the city to obtain more bids.

This time. the city received three bids, with CRS Design submitting the lowest bid of $71,086.

During the discussion at the council meeting, Ald. Julie Stumbris asked why the amount of the engineering service was so high.

City Administrator Sharon Eveland said this contract is more encompassing than the contract the city was considering in February.

The $72,000 cost covers all design and engineering services through construction.

The design phase is about $56,000 of the $72,000, which gets the city to the bidding for construction.

“This contract is now the preliminary design when we’re actually getting into the mechanics and layouts and everything else for the first step,” Ald. Jim Supanich said. “And I believe if we go through the entire contract and finish it up, it would be actually drawn and ready to go ahead and quote that job and start construction. That’s why the cost is going up.”

Huber asked if the city has any idea if it will be able to come up with more than $1 million in the next two years to construct the pond.

“Do we have anything on the horizon that says we’re anywhere close to that?” Huber asked.

Eveland said it is difficult to fundraise for a swimming pond if its cost is unknown.

She added that a 3D diagram of a potential facility design could be obtained by the city in this contract.

“It really allows us to show the people this is what we are going to do, this is what we are fundraising for,” Eveland said.

The bid proposal is also structured in a way to guarantee these bids are good for two years.

“We had that included in the RFP because we knew it would take us some time,” Eveland said.

The contract is also structured in a way that the full $72,000 will not be spent if the city decides midway through the process that it is not feasible to construct the swimming pond.