Park District Still Working to Get Price Down on Workman Complex

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Published on August 6 2014 4:31 pm
Written by Greg Sapp

The pencil-pushing continues as Effingham Park District officials try to bring down the cost of the planned Richard E. Workman Sports and Wellness Complex.

Park District President David McDevitt said at Wednesday night's Board meeting, "We're going to award a bid."

The original bid from low bidder Poettker Construction was $16,342,000.  Various changes to the specs have lowered the price to $15,027,000. McDevitt said another roughly $450,000 in cuts are pending. He also said with furnishings, fixtures and equipment and some likely change orders, the estimated price for the Complex is at $15.2 million.

The Park Board is awaiting a decision by the Effingham City Council on whether any hotel/motel tax dollars should allocated toward the project cost. The Council will consider the issue at their August 19 meeting. When the Council considered the request in July, City Administrator Jim Arndt said $250,000 in hotel/motel tax dollars could be allocated in each of the next two years for a total of $500,000. Opinion was divided among Council members then as to whether funds should be allocated.

McDevitt is proposing increasing the amount of debt to be incurred by the Park District for the project from $5.5 million to a new figure of $6.1 million. The Park District has been issuing $500,000 in bonds annually and using the funds for capital improvements and then paying the money back over the course of the fiscal year. McDevitt said $400,000 of that amount could be used each year for the next several years to help repay the debt incurred for the Complex, with $100,000 remaining each year for other capital improvements. He added that Midland States Bank has agreed to a low rate of interest and plans to work to share the load with other local financial institutions, and hopes that the Complex will "make a lot of money and we can pre-pay" some of those debt payments before they come due.

McDevitt said negotiations continue with St. Anthony's Memorial Hospital on the lease of a portion of the Complex for hospital programs in hopes of generating more revenue than was first anticipated. The pledge of Dr. Richard Workman to match contributions up to $1 million on top of his earlier $5.1 million contribution and some $2.9 million in donations from other private entities still leaves the Park District short of funds needed for the project.

That led McDevitt to suggest a reduction in the number of lanes in the pool in the complex from eight to six. He noted that the Complex already will not meet IHSA requirements for events since there is no diving well planned, but said that a six-lane pool would accommodate many of the meets they hope to land for Effingham.

McDevitt said he doesn't want to reduce the number of lanes, but an eight-lane pool as part of the Complex would still leave the Park District $2,347,000 short of the project cost. Such a reduction would reduce the footprint of the building and would lower the cost. He thinks that if the City decides against contributing any hotel/motel tax dollars, the project can still be built with the reduction to a six-lane pool.

Since the Council will reach their decision at the meeting on the 19th, the Park Board discussed calling a special meeting for Thursday, August 21st to decide on awarding the bid. 

By the way, the bid from Poettker was to expire Thursday, but Poettker has agreed to guarantee their bid prices for another 60 days.

McDevitt said, "This is gonna be the biggest project we've ever done; I know it's a risky proposition, but we have the right people on this; I feel it will be an asset."

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The Park Board Wednesday also heard from Park District Director Jeff Althoff that paving work is done on the new parking lot at Evergreen Hollow Park and that oil and chip work on other parking lots and roadways should begin next week. That includes the back road at Community Park that is the route for those enjoying the Wonderland in Lights display at Christmastime. Althoff said City officials have indicated that since the City benefits more than the Park District from keeping the roadway open to vehicular traffic, the City could contribute $50,000 toward the cost of the roadway, likely asphalt rather than oil and chip.

The Board also celebrated the completion of the Rotary Pavilion at Community Park and said the aging orange pavilion it replaces will be coming down soon.