Amador County – The Ione City Council learned Tuesday that it has lost part of its grant funding for a building and restroom project at Ed Hughes Memorial Arena due to a bidding error.
City Engineer John Wanger said Amador County Recreation Agency had to request an extension on $100,000 in Prop 40 funds it had pledged to the project, due to delays.
It went to bid in February, and an “unusual bid bond” submitted by a subcontractor to the general contractor, Wanger said: “We proceeded with the low bidder,” and a notice of award was issued, then another bidder submitted a protest. City staff looked at wording, which said they must have a bond with the bidding contractor.
Wanger said “we actually had to find the bid non-responsive,” reject the award that was given to the low bidder, and award the project to the second lowest bidder. He said that put the project 2-3 weeks behind schedule.
City Manager Kim Kerr said the project originally would be paid for by $82,000 from the State Resource Bond Act, the ACRA funds, and park fees. She said ACRA pulled back the $100,000 for reprogramming because the funds had to be spent by March 31. She said ACRA’s board of directors at its April 13 meeting “will look at how they can assist the city with reprogramming those funds.” Kerr said “this has been a project where everything that can go wrong has” gone wrong.
Kerr sent a letter to Assemblywoman Alyson Huber to see if she can help get an extension on the funds, and the state has said it has “about 20 projects in the situation we are in.” She said this is the number one project they want to get done in Howard Park.
ACRA Executive Director Tracey Towner-Yepp reiterated that she “wanted to make sure that those funds were safe,” and she wants to help with backfilling for the restroom and building project.
During public comment, Dominic Atlan said attended motorcycle races held recently in Hughes Arena, which despite the hard rain drew about 500 people. He said two porta-potties were not enough, and the wait for the bathrooms was about 25 minutes. He said Pizza Factory was the only vendor there, and a fundraising concession could have done good business.
“We were all surprised by the people there,” he said. They had 145 entrants and “bring their own crowd,” including spectators and mechanics. They are scheduled to come back April 30, Atlan encouraged the city to seek more races there by the Stockton racing league.
Recreation Commissioner Laurie Lord said crowds for horse events at the arena are also big, and can have 100 riders in one open division.
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
