By Conrad Dudderar
Senior Staff Writer
Visible progress on an estimated $3.9 million, 12,000 square foot addition to Canadian County’s juvenile center is expected to start within a few weeks, the project’s construction manager told county commissioners this week.
Commissioners, at their weekly meeting Monday morning in El Reno, heard an update from representatives of Pillar Contracting, Inc. on impending expansion at the Gary E. Miller Canadian County Children’s Justice Center, 7905 E Highway 66.
This project will add about 12,000 square feet to four buildings with construction expected to take about 14 months, according to Kyle Plemons of Pillar Contracting, Inc.
“We look forward to seeing some progress and seeing some steel go up in next two to three weeks,” Plemons told county commissioners Monday morning.
Juvenile center assistant director Cedric Mills said this addition will provide much-needed space at a facility that opened in August 1999. The project will add space for offices, administration, counseling, and drug testing services.
The addition will feature a new courtroom and two storm shelters.
The project cost has been “capped” at $3.9 million, according to County Commission Chairman David Anderson. County officials hope the final cost will be under that amount.
Canadian County in July 2017 selected Pillar Contracting to be construction manager for the juvenile center expansion project. As the construction management firm, Pillar hires the sub-contractors and oversees the vendors’ work.
County commissioners at Monday’s meeting reviewed final bid packages totaling $265,575 from these sub-contractors:
Waterproofing and sealants ($48,660 from Alliance Sealants), furnishing hollow metal doors, frames, wood doors, hardware and toilet accessories ($151,260 from CBS Manhattan); installation of doors, hardware and specialties ($19,800 from MLC Solutions); communications ($26,681 from TECHSICO), a fire alarm system ($15,194 from Plan-It Fire), toilet partitions ($3,200 from Piper Weatherford), and fire extinguishers ($600 from Piper Weatherford).
The final bid packages came in $171,215 below Pillar’s original estimates for these items.
“We’re very pleased with the overall numbers and the response that we got,” Plemons said.
A ‘GREAT’ ADDITION
Pillar Contracting anticipates getting the construction project underway on what will be a “great” addition to Canadian County’s “outstanding” juvenile facility, company President Gary Plemons said after the meeting.
The construction management company initially did not receive bids for the bid packages presented this week to Canadian County Commissioners. Construction bids were solicited last August.
“Pillar has put in budgeted amounts that we use to establish our ‘not-to-exceed’ price,” Commission Chairman Anderson said. “So now we actually have bids for those different construction packages.”
The District 2 county commissioner, who thanked Plemons for Monday’s update, said this project shows the benefit of using a “construction management method as opposed to a bid-build.”
Anderson said he hasn’t seen “much activity” lately on the project’s contingency fund. Plemons responded that he doesn’t believe the construction manager will have to use the contingency now that most of the underground utility work is finished.
“Assuming we can get the weather to cooperate, we can start making great strides as far as getting more production and productivity happening,” he told commissioners. “Once we start going ‘ground up’, we don’t expect the contingency to be hit nearly as much, unless it’s a change that is an ‘added value’ or something like that. We don’t foresee a problem that’s going to arise that we would need to hit that (contingency fund) any harder.”
District 1 Commissioner Marc Hader told Plemons he appreciated “hearing the good news” about this project.
