City Awards Contracts for Amphitheater, Annex, Cleanups

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – A contract with the firm the city wants to hire to provide final design and construction management services for the $9-million amphitheater and riverfront park project could go before the city’s Board of Control at its next scheduled meeting in a week.

The agreement with MKSK is in the city law department waiting for final adjustment. City Council last week authorized the board to negotiate the final agreement with the Columbus-based landscape architecture firm.

“It’s being transformed from a working document into a legal document,” Finance Director David Bozanich said. The agreement could be ready as early as the board’s Feb. 2 meeting.

The city expects to schedule a strategy meeting in the next two weeks with MKSK, Bozanich said. Officials also are going to be working on a final funding plan for the project and have been conducting “several conversations” regarding sponsorships, he said.

At a special meeting this morning, the board – which consists of Mayor John McNally, Law Director Marty Hume and Bozanich – approved another agreement related to the project as well as items related to the renovation of the City Hall Annex and the cleanup of the former Dempsey Steel site.

According to the professional services agreement with MS Consultants, Youngstown, the firm will survey and replat the amphitheater site for $9,536.

In further action, the board approved several agreements related to the renovation of space to accommodate the city health department in the annex building. The majority of the building is being renovated to accommodate the relocation of Youngstown Municipal Court and related offices.

The city awarded a $487,500 contract with Murphy contracting, Youngstown, to act as general contractor. It also awarded the plumbing contract to Antenucci Inc., Warren, for $80,821, the heating/ventilation/air conditioning contract to D&G Mechanical Inc. of West Middlesex, Pa., for $386,910, the fire protection contract to Fire Foe Inc., Girard, for $33,282, and the electrical contract to Tri Area Electric Inc. for $239,211.

RL Hill Management Inc., Solon, had submitted a bid of $1.17 million for the combined packages but the city did not accept it after determining it did not include any of the HVAC work.

The board also approved a settlement agreement with Environmental Remediation Contractors LLC, which had been awarded a contract for additional remediation work at the former Dempsey Steel site. The company will pay $25,000 to the city under terms of the settlement.

In December, the city had awarded the Columbus company a $756,916 contract for additional cleanup work at the Dempsey site, which Vallourec is using for pipe storage. Routine excavation at the site, which previously had been remediated under the Clean Ohio program, uncovered contaminated barrels on a “small, obscure portion of the property,” said Chuck Shasho, city deputy director of public works.

Environmental Remediation Contractors, which submitted the low bid for the cleanup work, determined it was unable to perform the work at the price bid and contacted the city requesting to get out of the bid. Following negotiations, the contractor and the city reached the settlement.

Following approval of the settlement agreement and rescinding of the contract with Environmental Remediation Contractor, the board voted to enter into an agreement with the firm that submitted the second-lowest bid, Environmental Management Specialists, Cleveland. It bid $863,110 to perform the work.

Because of a March 31 deadline to get the work done, the city opted to enter into the settlement agreement and award the contract to the next-lowest bidder.

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