Parking at Civic Center Park should about double once an improvement project underway there is complete.
The Orion Township Board of Trustees on May 19 authorized parks and recreation director Rock Blanchard to accept a bid from Oakland Excavating to begin phases I and II of a larger project at the park, located on Joslyn Road next to township hall.
The township went out for bids in October and received eight; Oakland Excavating Company was the lowest of them, coming in at a little over $440,000. The township’s engineers had estimated preliminary cost for the project at a little over $500,000.
“We’re very happy with the prices we got,” said Blanchard. “We were happy to get the $440,000.”
“With the traffic over there…it’s amazed me there’s not been more fatalities coming out of the DPW exit,” said trustee Eric Wilson. “Safety is as important as additional soccer fields.”
“This is a substantial sum of money, but I don’t think you can put a price on safety,” added Wilson.
Trustee Michael Fetzer worried the project might disturb summer sports activities taking place in the park.
“We’ll sit down once the contracts are awarded and work out a schedule,” explained Blanchard. “But it’s in the agreement that they’d have to work around the events in the park.”
“A second entrance (for the park) is always a good thing,” noted trustee Richard Tomczak. “I support this.”
Tomczak did wonder what the reason was for the difference in the amount of the bid and the engineer’s estimate.
“We had a couple theories for that,” said Jim Stevens of Orchard, Hiltz and McCliment, the township’s engineering firm. “When we sat down with the road commission, they said they were getting asphalt for a lot higher.
“Also construction season started awfully late this year, so the contractors are hungry,” he said.
“As I understood there were three phases to this and this is the most important because it took care of the drainage,” said supervisor Jerry Dywasuk.
According to Blanchard, the project was budgeted for in 2002 but not in 2003. A budget adjustment could be made to take money from the Capital Improvement Fund.
“We took a lot of things out (of the budget) because of revenue cuts, and now they’re coming back in the middle of the year,” trustee Michael Gingell said. “If we spend, I want to make sure we spend knowing all the facts.”
“I believe now is the right time to do it, and it needs to be done,” said Tomczak.
Treasurer James Marleau said the board had at least 30 days to comply with the bid, so he would like to move the matter to the next board meeting. Stevens said the board actually had 60 days.
“I’d like to look at the budget,” Marleau added. “We haven’t looked at our budget since we put it together.”
The board voted to approve the acceptance of the bid, and to schedule a meeting to have board members go over the budget.