After all of the bids for a proposed expansion of the Carroll Center, 1125 S. Kenilworth Ave., came back too high, the Park District of Oak Park’s board of commissioners agreed to reject them all and try a somewhat different approach.
As the park did when bids came in high for the Austin Gardens Environmental Education Center, commissioners opted to have the park district’s architectural firm oversee construction of the Carroll Center project and will seek bids from subcontractors individually.
The decision, said park district Executive Director Jan Arnold, is expected to save the district about $300,000 compared to the low bid for construction services officials received last month.
The park district budgeted about $1.7 million for the Carroll Center expansion, but the lowest of four bids received in March came in around $1.9 million. By having Oak Park-based Tom Bassett-Dilley Architects take on construction management, said Arnold, officials expect the project to come in around $1.6 to $1.7 million.
“Instead of using a general contractor, we’re going to be managing it with [the architectural firm’s] construction manager,” she said. “It requires more staff time to be involved, but it saves us approximately $300,000.”
Board Vice President Sandy Lentz said what Arnold proposed made sense.Â
“We have the experience of having done this before, so we’re not doing this in the dark,” she said. “I think if we can save a substantial amount of money, that’s the way we’d do it.”
The park district will begin seeking subcontractor bids in the next week and plans to award contracts in May. The change in direction, however, means construction won’t begin in June as planned, but will be pushed into August.
Even with that delay, the aim is to finish work by mid-winter.
Some $1.1 million in funding for the project is coming from the park district’s capital reserves. Arnold told park board commissioners last month that, ideally, the remaining money would come from a state grant. But if they don’t get the grant, or if they only get a partial amount, she would look into using operational reserves to bridge the gap.
Arnold said the Carroll Center expansion was much needed due to the growth of before- and after-school programs. According to the park district website, they plan to build a two-classroom addition directly south of the current building. The project also calls for replacing the current tot lot with a new tot lot east of the center.Â
