Cold Spring Pushes Back Awarding Contracts On Fire Hall Project

(KNSI)—Cold Spring City Council received good news on Wednesday regarding the new fire hall but will not award final contracts until September 25th.

City Administrator Kris Dockendorf says that over the next two weeks, the project manager will review the bids and double-check with the contractors to ensure that they understand the scope of what they’ve agreed to.

“They’ve already done a pretty good review of the bids. They’re going to do just more of an in-depth, final review to make sure everything that we need for the project is in their bid.”

If everything checks out, the project will be around $200,000 under budget. Dockendorf tells KNSI News that the small deviation, just 2.38%, is proof that everyone involved in the process acted meticulously and was detail-oriented.

She adds the new deadline for awarding bids will push back construction. “Now, we’re not going to get the bidders approved till the end of September, and I suspect that it will take at least a few weeks to get contracts signed. Let me update that to say mid-to-late October [for construction].”

Meanwhile, financing the project remains on track. Dockendorf and Northland Securities met with the credit rating agencies, which will grade the bonds next week in anticipation of a sale date on the 25th. Because of the lower construction cost, the principal on the bonds should come down from what was estimated.

The bonds will be paid back through 2054. Annual debt service will include one principal payment and two interest payments totaling roughly $535,000.

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