Sticker Shock on the New Police Station Bids

By Jeff Vorva

The Village of Beecher received some sticker shock when opening bids for the new police station.

The village was hoping to get the project done in the $4 million range but when the October 4 bids were opened, it appears it will take closer to $6 million to get it done.

It’s not just one bid for the whole project. It’s broken up into bidding for 17 different areas.

Bids were submitted for site infrastructure, earthwork, site work concrete, paving, cast-in-place concrete, masonry, structural steel, carpentry/general construction, roofing/sheet metal, flooring, acoustical/security ceilings, painting, fire protection, plumbing, HVAC, electrical, data/low voltage, and fencing.

“The total package came to about $5.9 million, and we are analyzing our options on how to proceed,” said Joe Gianotti, chairman of the Public Buildings and Properties Committee.

In November, a referendum was passed to fund the building, to be located on Church Street, for $3.9 million.

Gianotti told the village board at the October 10 meeting they had 60 days to decide what to do.

Village Administrator Robert Barber said that when the board meets next on October 23, they will need to “go through bids with a fine tooth comb.”

He also said, “The next meeting is going to be a long one. Pack a snack or something.”

The village does have options. It can restructure its wish list for the project.

“Any logical person would know that you are not going to trim $2 million out of those bids,” Barber said. “We have to make decisions on what we can cut and what options we can eliminate.

“The two big options on the table are to keep the same square footage and eliminate some of the usable space or reduce the square footage in the building and have 100 percent of usable space. Those decisions will have to be discussed more. I don’t have an answer to that yet.”

There is a possibility of re-bidding.

“If we change the footprint of the building, we will likely reject all the bids and re-bid the project,” Barber said. “If the square footage of the building stays the same with the framework and the interior, we might be able to use the same bid structure we have.”

Mayor Marcy Meyer said the bids varied quite a bit.

“Most of the bids were very competitive,” she said. “And some of the bids were outrageous.”

Fire inspections

Meyer reported the new fire inspector has inspected more than half the businesses in the community and, for the most part, things are going smoothly.

But not everyone is 100 percent pleased.

“There have been a few bumps in the road – it’s been a learning process,” she said. “But it’s been progressing well.

“We’ve had a lot of smaller things that this inspector has found, and she has been scheduling her own re-inspections. A lot of the re-inspections are done now.”

Fire inspections were done in the past independently via the village’s fire department, and some business owners did not like the way they were being treated.

After months of trying to work things out with the fire department, the village cancelled its intergovernmental agreement and sought out its own inspector. One service looked promising but backed out, and over the summer the board approved Elgin-based B and F Construction Service, Inc.

“They are not all positive – it’s an inspection so you are never going to see that,” Meyer said of comments she heard from businesses. “But it’s not the same issues as before.”

Meyer said the complaints stem from business owners who don’t feel like they are in violation.

“She has been good about telling the business owners why (the violations) are important to fix,” Meyer said.

For example, the new inspector is hitting hard on having signs in the business that say “Fire Extinguisher” near the extinguisher.

Even Meyer admits she thought that was odd until it was explained that some extinguishers are hard to find and someone not familiar with a business would be frantically looking around and seeing the sign would help.

“That’s something I had not thought about, but it makes sense,” Meyer said.

Meyer said the inspector is averaging 10 inspections per weekly visit and could be done with this year’s inspections by winter.