Friday, December 14, 2001
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Friday, December 14, 2001 |
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Tennis center expansion bids questioned By JOHN
MUNFORD Although Peachtree City mayor-elect Steve Brown hasn't been sworn into office yet, he is already making waves over a key city project. Brown had requested information on the expansion project that will add six covered tennis courts and an office building to the city's tennis center; a workshop was held on the matter Friday afternoon at City Hall. The $2.507 million contract for the expansion was approved unanimously by the City Council at its Oct. 18 meeting, but that didn't stop council members Dan Tennant and Steve Rapson from gently criticizing the project's bidding process during the workshop. The chorus of the criticism was that more bidders should have been sought for the project and the City Council should have been made aware that there were only three bids for the financing of the project. Meanwhile, grading work has already begun on the expansion, which is billed as giving the center the ability to attract even more prestigious tennis events. The Development Authority of Peachtree City, which operates the tennis center, oversaw the entire bidding process. Selecting a bank for financing the project, however, was partially out of the authority's hands since it was done through the Georgia Municipal Association's Bricks and Mortar Program, which only seeks bids from specially qualified banks. Virgil Christian, the authority's new executive director, who has been laboring over the project the past several years as the director of the tennis center, defended the criticism. He noted that the contractors on the projects helped cut the price down from its original $3.1 million estimate. The main contractor on the project is Group VI, while Flat Creek Inc. is responsible for surfacing the tennis courts and the authority contracted with Foley Design Associates which designed the original tennis center, Christian said. Group VI was one of four construction firms who replied to the public advertisements in The Fayette Daily News, the county's legal organ. But through the process of reviewing each firm's qualifications, two of the companies, Tomco Construction and Burcher Company, were determined not to have met the qualifications. That left Group VI and Tiernan and Patrylo as the remaining bidders. In doing its checks on both companies, members of the authority's construction committee found one of Tiernan and Patrylo's previous projects had several minor unresolved issues, and that was one of the deciding factors in going with Group VI instead, said Jim Fulton, a member of the authority's construction committee. The authority ended up authorizing negotiations with Group VI for the contract on the expansion. Brown said he felt the Development Authority should have advertised the project outside of Fayette County. Tennant agreed, and both mentioned that there are plenty of other capable construction firms in the Atlanta area. Group VI is headquartered in Peachtree City, however. Brown said he wasn't impressed with the quality of some of Group VI's construction projects, but he didn't cite specific examples. Christian said he considered putting the proposal to Atlanta firms, but he felt the tendency of projects from metro area companies was to have delays because they weren't located nearby. "I think we had four well-qualified bidders, two were very qualified and one was most qualified," Christian said. Bill Foley, the architect on the project who helped manage part of the bidding process, said other firms shy away from doing work in Peachtree City because of the added expense involved with meeting the city's landscaping requirements. Tennant said he wasn't making any accusations, but he wanted to make sure the citizens' tax monies were being spent correctly. Christian said his door remains open for anyone with questions about the project. "If you need information, I'll get it to you," Christian said. Financing for the project, which was funneled through the Georgia Municipal Association's Bricks and Mortar program, ended up with First Union, with a winning bid of 4.44 percent interest over the life of the 15-year loan. The tennis center was one of the construction projects the city sought to finance through GMA, including the renovations to City Hall and renovations to a fire station. City Finance Director Paul Salvatore noted that the deal with First Union was under the budgeted finance rate of 5 percent. The actual rate locked in was 4.41 percent since city officials were able to convince First Union to reduce the rate. The other bidders on the financing package were SunTrust Bank and BB&T. "As far as I know, we did as good as we could have," Salvatore said. Rapson complained that council wasn't told about only receiving three bids for the financing package. Salvatore said GMA officials told him there were "really only two banks who were aggressive in pursuing these type of deals." "Maybe some of these things we should question on the next project," Brown said as the workshop wrapped up. "I think the message is we'd rather have more information than too little," Tennant said. The workshop came to fruition after Brown requested information on the bidding process used for the tennis center. City Manager Jim Basinger said he contacted Development Authority Chairman Tom Farr about the request, and Farr suggested a face-to-face meeting would be appropriate to address any concerns. Brown noted that City Attorney Rick Lindsey and Development Authority attorney Mark Oldenburg attended the meeting, and he said it wasn't his intention for them to be there. Basinger explained that since Lindsey generally attends all council meetings, and the workshop was announced as a called meeting of the City Council, it was decided that Lindsey should attend. He also noted that Lindsey was aware of the situation with the tennis center.
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