Council members raise questions about contracts relating to airport improvement

Thursday, May 4, 2006

Nevada Daily Mail

The contract with Adams and Associates was signed months ago, the design for the new terminal building at the Nevada Municipal Airport is nearly complete and the project is ready to go to bid later this month, with construction expected to start early this summer.

Although the city is pretty well committed to following through with the project, members of the Nevada City Council spent about one hour during Tuesday night's city council meeting interrogating Ron Jones, airport board president, and Jim Adams, architect and construction coordinator for the terminal building, and Sherry Steward, Nevada's project director, about the design of the building and how the Community Development Block Grant money is being used.

Two years ago the city received a $500,000 Community Development Block Grant to build a new terminal, Ron Jones told the council.

The airport board has tried to have as much local participation in the project as possible, he said.

"This is a really elegant design," Jones said, adding that it will have everything that a pilot or the community will need.

Councilman Russ Kemm said that although he agrees that the current terminal at the airport needs to be replaced he has concerns about the design and the cost of the new terminal building.

"One thing that concerned me was the fact that I felt that Mr. Bryson (airport manager) wasn't involved enough in the design of the building," Kemm said.

He said that he thought that it would be convenient for Bryson to have a hanger attached to the terminal building and wondered why that had not been considered.

Kemm was told that the CDBG money could only be used to construct a terminal building. The money could not be used for hangers or even for furniture for the building.

Bryson later said that he had made comments about the project and although he was happy with the final design his biggest concern was with the cost of the project.

Kemm said that he was also greatly concerned with the $140,000 that is being paid to Adams for their architectural and construction coordinator services.

"That's a 27-percent overhead for construction," he said.

Kemm said that he had requested that the city clerk provide him with complete documentation for the process and he was concerned that of the three firms that were asked to come for interviews he was only given a hard copy of the bid from Adams and Associates.

He said that when the city held the interviews only Adams and Burns & McDonnell showed up. Wilson & Company, the third finalist, did not come.

"No questions were asked about why Wilson & Company were not there," Kemm said.

He said that he contacted Wilson and they said that they never received a notice of the interview.

Sherry Steward, the city's project director, said that this was months ago and that she could not remember what happened, but that it was not customary for the city to contact companies to see why they did not come for an interview.

Steward said that she tried to contact Wilson on Tuesday and was unable to reach them.

She said that Wilson & Company is a company with which the city has not done business before.

Kemm said that he had no trouble reaching them at the telephone number and e-mail the city provided him.

One bid with a 27-percent architectural fee and another firm never interviewed, he said, "gives me the appearance that not everything is above-board," Kemm said.

Councilman Dick Meyers asked Steward how the $140,000 for architectural and construction coordinator fees were arrived at.

Steward said that the city provides interested companies a scope of services needed with a maximum cost and the companies tell the city what it will cost for the desired work.

You cannot bid out professional services like other services, Steward said.

"I'm very concerned that the best interests of the city of Nevada, Mo., are not being considered," Meyers said.

Steward told the council that she and Sam Foursha, acting city manager, are looking at the scope of services because they have to be careful about what an architect can be allowed to do.

"I'm here to brief the council on the project and to help you to make good decisions," Jim Adams told the council.

Adams told the council that he was originally contacted by Burns & McDonnell to work with them on the CDBG for the terminal building when they were working on getting the runway renovation project. Their original bid for the terminal was higher than the city wanted so the terminal was rebid.

"I've been here for 32 years and have done a lot of work for the city. I don't want anyone to think that we're trying to rip anyone off," Adams told the council.

He said that he plans to honor the contract they have with the city and would like for the city to stand behind it as well.

Adams told the council that he would be glad to meet privately with the council to discuss his contracts and he had already offered to meet with one councilman, who refused the offer.

"The hanger is good idea, but nobody brought up the idea," Adams said.

During the predesign phase Adams solicited input from airport users and any other interested people through questionnaires and public meetings for that purpose with the airport board.

"Could the design be changed so a hanger could be added later?" Kemm asked.

"We planned the building to be expanded. We always design buildings with expansion in mind," Adams said.

He told the council that his firm is trying to do a good job.

"We were asked to approach this project the same way we did the senior center. We spent more time on it than we were paid for.

"Why not build a nice building if someone else is paying for it? There is not one local tax dollar going into it," he said.

Councilman Bill Edmonds said that when the council approved the contract with Adams they wanted to work with local companies as much as possible.

Adams told the council that he has designed the project so that as many local companies as possible would be able to participate.

"I have 61 local firms involved and half are in Vernon County. If we keep it broken down into small pieces, they can bid," he said.

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