The committee overseeing the construction of the 5,000-square-foot expansion of the Commerce Public Library has literally gone back to the drawing board.
In what regional library director Beth McIntyre called “value engineering,” the group met last week and looked for ways to shave the cost of the project after four bids came in over the budget for the building.
“We tried to make the building cost a little less, and we’ll put it out for bids again,” McIntyre said. “It’s a process where we try to compromise. We came up with several areas where some costs can be reduced."
One contributor to the high bids was a requirement that all bidders include an audited financial statement. That requirement was modified to state a “reviewed financial statement,” which is less costly for the companies to provide.
The budget for the construction is about $1.1 million. The low bid came in at $1.3 million and the high bid at about $1.7 million.
Other cost-saving approaches included reducing the landscaping, with the hope that the Friends of the Library and other volunteers will help; having the city relocate the memorial statue and other garden ornaments and take on some of the road-related issues required by the Department of Transportation.
“The city of Commerce has been very cooperative, and they took on several costs,” McIntyre noted.
City manager Clarence Bryant is also investigating whether the library’s services can be relocated during the construction period, which would produce additional savings. One possibility is to move the materials and service to the Commerce Civic Center.
“There is some investigating going on,” McIntyre said.
When the architects complete the revisions, the committee will again advertise for bids.
In addition to providing the extra space, the project also includes renovation of the current space plus new furnishings.
