MONROE - The lowest construction bid for the Green County Justice Center is about $349,000 more than budgeted.
Paul Brummund of architecture firm Potter Lawson read six sealed bids for the justice center Thursday during the Green County Ad Hoc Justice Center Property Committee meeting.
The county board approved a project cost of $12.6 million for the justice center last September. The construction budget is $10.9 million.
J.P. Cullen of Janesville submitted the low construction bid of $11,272,872. The county is required to accept the lowest responsible bidder.
The highest bid was from Kraemer Brothers of Plain, at $12,242,036.
County Board Chairman Art Carter said having the lowest bid be over budget was expected, but not as bad as anticipated.
"I think we can come very, very close to what is budgeted," Carter said. "We always planned to turn educated best guesses into hard numbers, and we really need to do that now."
The committee tabled a recommendation to the county board until it can find ways to get the bid closer to budget.
The three areas Potter Lawson and the county will examine are:
• To ask Cullen if there are any construction savings that would eliminate $100,000 in costs, or Potter Lawson if there are any architectural savings.
• Examining new furniture needs as opposed to using current furniture, in order to save $100,000.
• Seeing if the architecture contingency fund can be reduced from 4 percent of construction costs to 3 percent, saving about $100,000.
That still leaves a hole of about $49,000 between the construction budget and Cullen's low bid.
"As our discussion went on, there was a degree of optimism that will can still make this system work," committee member Lloyd Lueschow said. "We can make it fit with some tweaking and have nothing worse than nuisance issues."
Lueschow does not want to tweak the project to the point the county has to re-bid it. That would delay the project by at least a couple months.
"I'm absolutely against that," Lueschow said.
The 64,700-square-foot facility will be built on county-owned land to the east of the Green County Sheriff's Department and jail. The facility will include the Green County court system, the University of Wisconsin-Extension, a multi-purpose meeting room and offices for the public defender, probation and parole.
The committee will meet again at 2 p.m. July 7 to go over what cost savings Potter Lawson finds.
The committee is to recommend to the board a course of action on the justice center's construction costs. The committee could make that recommendation at the board's July 8 meeting.
Paul Brummund of architecture firm Potter Lawson read six sealed bids for the justice center Thursday during the Green County Ad Hoc Justice Center Property Committee meeting.
The county board approved a project cost of $12.6 million for the justice center last September. The construction budget is $10.9 million.
J.P. Cullen of Janesville submitted the low construction bid of $11,272,872. The county is required to accept the lowest responsible bidder.
The highest bid was from Kraemer Brothers of Plain, at $12,242,036.
County Board Chairman Art Carter said having the lowest bid be over budget was expected, but not as bad as anticipated.
"I think we can come very, very close to what is budgeted," Carter said. "We always planned to turn educated best guesses into hard numbers, and we really need to do that now."
The committee tabled a recommendation to the county board until it can find ways to get the bid closer to budget.
The three areas Potter Lawson and the county will examine are:
• To ask Cullen if there are any construction savings that would eliminate $100,000 in costs, or Potter Lawson if there are any architectural savings.
• Examining new furniture needs as opposed to using current furniture, in order to save $100,000.
• Seeing if the architecture contingency fund can be reduced from 4 percent of construction costs to 3 percent, saving about $100,000.
That still leaves a hole of about $49,000 between the construction budget and Cullen's low bid.
"As our discussion went on, there was a degree of optimism that will can still make this system work," committee member Lloyd Lueschow said. "We can make it fit with some tweaking and have nothing worse than nuisance issues."
Lueschow does not want to tweak the project to the point the county has to re-bid it. That would delay the project by at least a couple months.
"I'm absolutely against that," Lueschow said.
The 64,700-square-foot facility will be built on county-owned land to the east of the Green County Sheriff's Department and jail. The facility will include the Green County court system, the University of Wisconsin-Extension, a multi-purpose meeting room and offices for the public defender, probation and parole.
The committee will meet again at 2 p.m. July 7 to go over what cost savings Potter Lawson finds.
The committee is to recommend to the board a course of action on the justice center's construction costs. The committee could make that recommendation at the board's July 8 meeting.