Springdale council OKs additional $1.5 million for municial campus

Springdale City Hall is shown in this undated file photo.
Springdale City Hall is shown in this undated file photo.

SPRINGDALE -- The City Council on Tuesday night reluctantly approved an additional $1.5 million for the construction of its municipal campus.

Council member Mike Overton voted against the measure.

The council on Tuesday supported the addition of a community room to the south side of the building for $503,089. It also accepted change orders made during construction to support technology needed by the Police Department. Members balked at paying additional costs to the architect and contractor, who cited delays because of weather and the covid-19 pandemic.

Springdale voters in 2018 approved a $200 million bond project including $42 million for a new city administration building. The campus is being built in two stages. The north side of the building, under construction as Phase 1, includes the Police Department and District Court and offices. Phase 2 will include offices for staff of city departments and new council chambers on the south end.

The contracts with both the construction manager and architect cite "unforeseen" circumstances, which describe the pandemic, said Ernest Cate, the city attorney.

"It does not make sense that this money must be paid by the city because a supplier didn't supply you with materials on time," Overton said. "I don't know how that's the city's fault."

"It was just as unforeseen for us," said council member Mike Lawson.

The architect and construction companies are charging the city for 287 days beyond the scope of the original contract. They attributed the delays to 80 days of bad weather, 30 days needed to make the city's change orders and 170 days on the virus shutdowns.

At issue are 132 cast concrete panels making up the exterior of the building. They were to be poured in April and May, but they were made in August and September, said Roy Decker of Duvall Decker Architects in Jackson, Miss. He said the final panel was put in place last month.

The factory pouring those panels, also in Jackson, was closed when Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves closed many of the state's businesses to slow the spread of the covid-19 virus.

Even when the business opened up, the company still faced staffing problems related to the pandemic, said Greg Ferus, project supervisor for Milestone.

Ferus noted similar situations with local subcontractors. "The mason is from Fort Smith, and his crew rides together. So if one quarantines, they all do. Now, if they don't show up, they don't get paid, but I've lost that time."

The contractors never halted the municipal campus construction, although many of those days the project wasn't working at full capacity, Ferus said.

Construction supervisors stayed on site, rescheduling the jobs and making other adjustments to keep the project going. Contractors also used the down time to create an aggressive plan to build Phase 2, Decker said.

In addition to their salaries, costs for more time were added to the rental fees of equipment and trailers, Ferus said.

Ferus said the building is being built backward because of the delays. Usually, the walls go up, then the roof goes on, then the interior is built. He said the contractors wrapped the walls in plastic and the roof was added before the walls, so work could continue.

The building should have been enclosed by the concrete panels in September, so the inside could be heated for work this time of year, Ferus said. The interior is still not warm, he reported.

Several council members asked for reassurances the second phase of construction wouldn't incur similar additional, unexpected delays or cost overruns.

Decker said they didn't expect any. "These delays were unprecedented," he said. "The second phase of construction is simply an office building."

Laurinda Joenks can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @NWALaurinda.

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