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Centre Daily Times March 16 2005
Plans to renovate former M&T Bank building progressing
By Lara Brenckle; lbrenckl@centredaily.com
"Bids for renovations to the M&T Bank building came in higher than anticipated, but county commissioners said last week that they still were prepared to move ahead with the project.
The lowest bids added up to $1.8 million, with BCS Construction Inc., of Altoona, the apparent low bidder for the general construction contract at $1.1 million.
At the high end, bids reached nearly $3 million.
The county received a total of 17 bids for various parts of the construction project, including general contracting, HVAC, plumbing, fire protection and electrical work.
On March 8, commissioners on voted to accept all bids, but tabled action on awarding any contracts until this Thursday. On March 10, though, commissioners decided to rebid the fire protection portion of the courthouse annex project because the sole bidder's price was higher than expected.
Commissioners plan to turn the former bank building at 108 S. Allegheny St. into a courthouse annex. It will house the county's fourth judge, who will be elected in November and seated in 2006.
When the county purchased the building from the Buffalo, N.Y.-based bank in April for $240,000, commissioners Chairman Chris Exarchos said it would be a good value for county taxpayers. Renovations, he predicted, would total roughly a million dollars and he would be "uncomfortable" if they went higher than that.
At the March 8 meeting, he said that was just "a random number" he threw out at the time, with "no real significance." He had last week estimated the costs at closer to $1.5 million.
Exarchos' first question to project architect Alan Popovich after the bids were read was: "Can we rebid?"
After the meeting, however, Exarchos said he was not interested in rebidding the project. "I don't imagine going back out is going to do much better," he said.
Two days later, Popovich asked the board to re-advertise fire protection contract because the bid had been noncompetitive and, at $135,000, was "much, much more" than expected.
Popovich said the rebid will not delay the project since the automatic fire suppression system is one of the easier systems to install.
Once the project is advertised, bids will be solicited through April 4, with the contract slated to be awarded April 12. Installation will begin April 25."
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