A decision by Town of Osoyoos council to re-tender the contract to construct the Gyro Park Plaza has proven to be a very wise one.

Council decided in August to engage in a phased approach to this project and re-tender Phase One after the lowest bid came in at close to $800,000.

“Council confirmed a phased approach to this project whereby the scope of work to be undertaken over 2014-15 would depend on the tender prices received and available funds,” said Alain Cunningham, the town’s director of planning and development services, during a presentation to town council on Monday. “This approach was partly a response to our earlier unsuccessful tendering in April.”

Following a second tendering of the Gyro Park Plaza project, Crown Contracting Ltd. from Surrey has presented the lowest bid of $628,289.49 (with GST) to complete the first four phases of the project and optional phases 5-6.

The next lowest bid was just over $100,000 higher from Grizzly Excavating Ltd. from Penticton.

After very brief discussion, council voted unanimously to award the tender to Crown Contracting after Cunningham assured them the bid included comprehensive pricing details on more than 90 cost components involved in the bid.

When construction on the Gyro Park Plaza begins in the coming weeks, it will include paving the entire plaza, including the installation of irrigation and electrical conduits; tree and turf planting within the plaza and installation of signage, lighting, tree grates and bike racks’ removal of the current Gyro Park parking area, including trees and plants; and upgrading the concession/washroom area, pathway, furniture and turf under new trees.

Phase 5 and 6,  which will be completed next spring and summer, includes the installation of composite wood decking and a seating area east of the town’s current concession stand.

Almost $300,000 of the funding for this project will be provide by Resort Municipality Initiative (RMI) forwarded to the town from the provincial government.

All local hotel and motel owners have charged a two per cent tax to visitors over the past five years, which is turned over to the province under the MFP program. The province in turn, provides annual funding to each of the 14 designated resort municipalities in B.C.

Another $175,000 will come from reserves, another $156,000 will come from future RMI funding.

Council has approved another $175,000 from cost savings on other proposed landscaping projects.

The decision to re-tender the project has saved more than $103,000 from the original tendering process several months ago, said Cunningham.

“The lower retendering prices probably reflect some design cost savings made by our consultants and the benefits of waiting later in the season when contractors tend to have less projects lined up,” said Cunningham.

The lowest bid by Crown Contracting is close to the original budget prepared by staff for the Gyro Park Plaza project, he said.

“It is close to our original budget, meaning that the majority of council’s authorized supplementary funds can be reallocated back for other purposes,” he said.

The town’s consultant on this project, Outland Design, detailed cost breakdowns for 93 construction and material components that made up their total tender and found all of their costs to be “credible and realistic with no evidence of purposeful underbidding or underestimation of the work required,” said Cunningham.

Council voted unanimously to support awarding the bid to Crown Contracting and construction on the Gyro Park Plaza is expected to begin within the next couple of weeks.

Mayor Stu Wells joked that retendering this particular project saved so much money for local taxpayers that “maybe we should do all our tenders a second time.”

Coun. Michael Ryan said council made a wise decision several months ago to reject the original tendered contracts and go through the process a second time.

Wells said this huge upgrade to Gyro Park is going to be impressive and attract even more people to the town’s busiest park.

“This is going to result in a really significant change in Gyro Park,” he said.

KEITH LACEY

Osoyoos Times