19th hole at course will cost about $350,000

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Council member Jayne Novak told the Nevada City Council during Tuesday's meeting that she was not comfortable with paying Archetype Design Group Inc. $50,000 for the design and other construction services related to building a new clubhouse at the Frank E. Peters Municipal Golf Course. The architects fee is 10 percent of the total cost of the facility to be designed.

"That means we're looking at a $500,000 clubhouse. I can't imagine a $500,000 clubhouse," Novak said, before the council voted 3-1, with Novak voting no, to approve the contract with Archetype Design. Novak also voted no on the first reading of the ordinance during the council's Jan. 22 meeting.

Nevada Mayor Brian Leonard said that he did not think the building would cost $500,000. He said the total cost of the facility would also include redoing the parking lot, furnishing the building, installing a grill, and other expenses not directly associated with the building itself.

And following the vote by the council Tuesday to allow the sale of alcohol at the golf course the facility will have to be designed to accommodate that, which means an area that can be closed off from the rest of the clubhouse with appropriate coolers.

Novak said that while she opposed spending $500,000 on a clubhouse, she did not oppose making other improvements at the golf course, like a covered driving range, better cart sheds or improving the sprinkler system on the course.

"I'd like to see what he (the architect) comes up with," council member Lance Christie said.

"It needs to be appropriately sized for our needs," Christie said, adding that the $500,000 gives the city "wiggle room" for paying for it.

Nevada City Manager JD Kehrman told the council that while $500,000 was allocated for the clubhouse he did not think the cost of the building would be that high.

According to a written statement from Kehrman detailing what the city anticipates the actual cost of the clubhouse to be: "It was suggested initially that we should set aside 10 percent of the allocation as a contingency fund for our purposes. Past project experience has taught us that, no matter how well thought out our plans are, there is always the possibility of a need for funds after the project budget has been set. We've learned that a 10 percent contingency fund is always good project management, Having to do change orders in the middle of a project due to unforeseen costs is undesirable, so the architect was given a budget of $450,000, not $500,000.

"The architect, in turn, planned the project with approximately $50,000 for himself, and about $50,000 as a contingency of his own. That is, he allowed himself $50,000 over and above the estimated construction costs for additional items and improvements of his own.

"He anticipated construction bids in the neighborhood of $350,000. That's the building he is planning to design. That would be a more accurate number to use to describe the building. When you build a home, the price you often quote as the value of the home is the construction cost, or what you would assume the house to be worth upon completion.

"Now $350,000 is still a lot to spend on a clubhouse. This is where our costs of doing business comes into play. Our requirements that include prevailing wages, million dollar insurance policies, bonding, and strict adherence to federal, state and local laws, regulations, and ordinances including public building construction vs. private construction, ADA compliance, etc., will always drive up our costs. The contractors have to add the costs of those items into their bids. That's one way to explain why we spent more than $100,000 on the Marmaduke Park building, $90,000 on the concession stand, and $80,000 on a maintenance barn."

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