Full steam ahead for public safety building in Highland
After multiple delays and changes to the project, Highland’s new public safety building is going forward.
In May 2019, the city council rejected all bids for the project and went back to the drawing board. The lowest bid was about $8.5 million, and the city wanted to keep the cost under $6.6 million.
A committee of public safety employees has worked with the architect to come up with a streamlined plan to bring the project under budget, according to Police Chief Chris Conrad. At the Sept. 21 city council meeting, bids were awarded totaling approximately $6.5 million for general contracting, mechanical, plumbing and other construction to go forward with the project.
Conrad estimated that with the bids they received, it is unlikely Highland could get the same square footage for this price in the future. He pointed out the project has been pending since 2011, and this building is almost half the size of that initial proposal.
“One of the biggest differences is that we don’t store paper records in the volume we used to,” he said. “We store so much digitally now, and that allowed us to make significant reductions in storage.”
Highland police detective lends key input
Conrad said a committee of employees spent many hours touring other facilities and researching what would be needed for the new building. In addition, he said, Highland Police Detective Shawn Bland had taken architecture and drafting courses in college.
“We used his non-police skills to our advantage,” Conrad said. “He spent a lot of time working with our architect ... he developed some things that will definitely work with us in how we operate here.”
The council had already approved approximately $8.8 million in construction bonds for this project and the renovation of the fire station. Of that, $6.4 million is available for the project, and the police department has another $1.3 million in reserves, according to the report Conrad filed with the council.
That will permit the project to add optional features such as garage bays for police cars and apparatus bays for the fire department, which would “complete the design of the structure and provide our emergency services with the designed capacity to allow for doubling of all services in the future,” Conrad wrote.
Company from St. Louis presents lowest bid
The lowest bidder for general contractor was S.M. Wilson Construction with a base bid of $4.635 million. Wilson is based in St. Louis with offices in Granite City, and councilwoman Peggy Bellm said she was “disappointed” the primary contractor was not local to Highland.
City attorney Michael McGinley said state statute controls what can be done for bidding a public works project, however. As long as the lowest bidder is responsible and has a track record of doing responsible work, the city is required to award it to the lowest responsible bidder, he said.
“These very strict statutory guidelines are in place to make sure we are the best shepherds of taxpayer funds, that we are getting the most value in every public project as possible,” McGinley said.
Wilson has managed projects in the area, including Mascoutah High School and the Maplewood Fire Department in Missouri.
Other contractors awarded bids include Langhauser Sheet Metal of Highland, Bergman Roscow Plumbing of Belleville, MC Electric of Red Bud, and Kane Fire Protection of East Alton.
The council’s vote was unanimous.