The Carpinteria City Council on Monday will be deciding whether to award a construction contract for a new skate park.
Since launching in 2009, the Carpinteria Skate Foundation has been striving to create a new park for skaters of all ages to enjoy, fundraising and working with the City of Carpinteria to build a partnership.
The park was designed by Dreamland Skateparks of Lincoln City, Oregon. Last June, the Carpinteria Skate Foundation held a kick-off celebration for the project at the park’s future site adjacent to City Hall and the Santa Barbara County sheriff’s substation, where skaters of all kinds came out.
In a Feb. 14 meeting, the council was presented with just one bid for construction — from Santa Barbara-based Lash Construction Inc. — for $2,089,242, nearly 50% over the engineer’s estimate.
Because the council normally tries to stay within 10% of the engineer’s estimate, which was $1.4 million for this project, the award of the contract was delayed until staff returned with a bid analysis report.
“Though the current bid is over the engineer’s estimate, staff determined the lowest total base bid by Lash Construction Inc. generally corroborates with current construction trends, which have substantially increased from last year since the engineer’s estimate was prepared,” the item’s staff report said.
Now, at Monday’s meeting, the council will decide if it will award the bid to Lash. The council’s other choices include rejecting the bid and declaring the project could be more economically performed by city employees, rejecting the bid and readvertising for bids, rejecting the bid and redesigning the project into smaller phases, or abandoning the project completely.
The city staff report is recommending that the council grant the bid to Lash Construction at this time.
As for the $696,000 funding shortfall, the city has the option to use its own funding sources, such as the General Fund or Measure X sales tax funds; split the shortfall in half with the Carpinteria Skate Foundation; or apply for grants.
If the City Council does award the Skate Park Project to Lash Construction, the estimated construction schedule includes a notice to proceed in April with construction closeout projected in January.
The City Council meeting will take place at 5:30 p.m. Monday in-person in City Council Chambers at City Hall, at 5775 Carpinteria Ave., as well as virtually on the city’s website.
— Noozhawk staff writer Serena Guentz can be reached at sguentz@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.