The Pleasant Hill City Council has rejected an appeal by a Richmond building firm challenging a competing bid to build the city’s new library building, opening the way for the council to award the contract to the only other bidder for the long-awaited project.
Those actions, council members said, finally clear the way for library construction to begin after years of planning and cooperation among several major players. Barring unforeseen problems, city officials say the new library should open in mid-2022.
At its Aug. 3 meeting, the council voted to award the library contract to Napa-based BHM Construction Inc.
BHM was one of four companies to bid on the library work when, in June, the City Council called for a rebid of the project, voting 5-0 to reject all four bids opened in May because of an unspecified “abnormality” in one of the bids, from C. Overaa Construction of Richmond.
The problem was described as more serious than a typo or a clerical error, but never publicly specified. The council unanimously rejected all four previous bids, including Overaa’s low bid of $21,717,000.
Overaa and BHM were the only two companies to submit bids the second time; those bids were opened June 29. This time, BHM, at $20.92 million, came in slightly lower than Overaa’s $21.04 million bid.
Overaa filed an appeal on July 7 contesting the BHN bid. The city and its consultants found the protest “meritless,” and notified Overaa of that on July 13.
On Aug. 3, City Manager June Catalano called approval of the BHM bid the end of a “long, complicated and momentous process.”
And City Councilman Michael Harris, referring to his long council tenure said, “It’s a dream come true for me and so many other people. This was on my agenda when I first ran for the council in the 1820s.”
The new 24,000-square-foot, single-story library will be built on a vacant 3.65-acre parcel at the northeast corner of Monticello Avenue and Oak Park Boulevard, near where the old, recently closed library — the Contra Costa County Library system’s flagship — now sits.
The new library is part of a four-way plan in which the old library is leveled to make way for 34 new two-story houses on that land.
The final step of that process occurred in July, when the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors approved the $13.8 million sale of 4.8 acres of land to Walnut Creek-based Davidon Homes for construction of 34 single-family houses.
The old Pleasant Hill library closed June 3 after more than 50 years. A temporary Pleasant Hill library opened July 14 in a community room at City Hall.
The old library was just fine.
Totally.
They intentionally have not taken care of it (or its parking lot) in the last few years. This is someone’s pet project that they are trying to force down the peoples’ throats.
Actually it wasn’t. It did not have enough electrical plugs, no fire safety, the central air was being held together with basically electrical tape and gum, half the building was empty and unusable, the roof leaked, and no building upgrades could be done as asbestos was throughout the building. That is just naming the basic issues. It was more expensive to get the old building up to code then to build the new one.
Michael Harris ran for council in tbe 1820’s? Damn how old is he? 😂
😂
I caught the same thing!
Do you think the poor fellow has been trying every election since then to be a councilperson.
( Dang, he was just a young whippersnapper back then….. I remember !!!)
“And City Councilman Michael Harris, referring to his long council tenure said, “It’s a dream come true for me and so many other people. This was on my agenda when I first ran for the council in the 1820s”
They really need to consider term limits over there in PH. 200 years is rather a long time…
Should’ve been a little more generous with the kickbacks and bribes.
The 5 city councilmen/women keep switching jobs every few years. It’s quite ridiculous that they never leave their spots. How do we elect them out? We do not need anymore housing in the small town.
Final price upon completion will for sure be around $25 mill after change orders
I want to know why it was re-bid in the first place! They said no to the initial low bid of 21.7 mil, yet accepted the new bid at an even lower price from a different company? Sounds like they just didn’t want to work with Overaa.
Truth be known the reason why Overaa was the low bid originally is because their MO is to initially low bid a job and then make up for it by change ordering the project to death.
It’s about time. Public buildings with antiquated wiring and asbestos are a hazard to the community. $20+ million seems a bit steep but if it lasts 50+ years I guess it’s ok. Libraries are one of the few local government systems that actually do what they are supposed to do. They are easily accessible and also provide internet access for citizens who may not have such access.
“Barring unforeseen problems, city officials say the new library should open in mid-2022.”
If city officials are going into the project with the expectation that there will be no “unforeseen problems”, they are living in some unreal fantasy land.
Of course there will “unforeseen problems”. There are on any major construction project. Heck, city officials couldn’t even get the bidding project done without ongoing major screw ups.