LOVINGTON — Remodeling of the Love Street Baseball Complex restrooms hit another snag Monday as commissioners voted 4-0 against awarding the project after receiving only one qualified bidder.
At Monday’s meeting, Loving-ton City Manager James Williams presented two bids submitted for the remodeling project from Hobbs and Lovington contractors for $58,880.25 and $59,950. The project includes replacement of three exterior doors, moving interior walls to make restrooms Americans with Disabilities Act compliant, installation of ADA compliant sinks, toilets, interior lighting, interior and exterior painting. An alternate bid requested by the city also involves improvements for the concession stand area.
The low bid did not qualify since it was incomplete, which left the high bidder as the only available choice. The high bid, submitted by Impact Construction Plus of Hobbs, did not include an alternate bid featuring improvements for the concession stand, while the low bidder did. Commissioners opted against awarding the project, which prompts a fourth attempt to garner bids for the remodel.
Williams said the city anticipates opening bids on Dec. 1 and it would be awarded at the Dec. 11 meeting.
“We actually wanted to do this project last fiscal year, but with the declining revenues we decided to freeze it,” Williams said after the meeting. “In this year’s budget, we restored funding to that project so we started advertising for a contractor to come in and do the work for us. Our first attempt at advertising resulted in no bids. Our second attempt resulted in no bids. We did have one late bid submitted, but we couldn’t open it per our rules and regulations.”
He said the city went out for a third time, noting it’s a project the city wants to get done because the restrooms need an update. At the meeting, Williams informed commissioners the project is kind of under a “tight time frame” because it needs to be completed before April 1 when baseball season starts and noted the city would take the risk of not getting any qualified responses.
Also at the meeting,
• District 4 Commissioner Scotty Gandy was not in attendance.
• By a 4-0 vote, commissioners approved an ordinance to amend the city’s uniform traffic code, which included clarification for the definition of an autocycle and updating the definition of a school bus.
• By a 4-0 vote, commissioners approved a zoning change for 4712 East Stiles Road from residential to rural suburban.
• By a 4-0 vote, commissioners approved updating the Lovington Police Department uniform policy.
• By a 4-0 vote, commissioners approved a resolution for an ambulance billing software update with RAM Software Systems, Inc. The contract is $6,000 per year.
Kelly Farrell can be reached at courts@hobbsnews.com.
