By Greg Chandler
Zeeland Record
The city of Zeeland will retain a consultant to help local leaders determine which city-owned buildings should get first priority for improvements.
The City Council Monday night approved awarding a professional services contract to Grand Rapids-based Tower Pinkster in the amount of $24,000 for implementation planning services related to a facilities condition audit and space use analysis that the firm had done for the city in 2023-24.
The council also approved a budget amendment in the amount of $30,000 for the contract. The project had not been included in the city’s current budget.
In its facilities condition audit and space use analysis presented to City Council one year ago this week, Tower Pinkster said that more than $24 million was needed to upgrade city-owned facilities, including more than $8.2 million for the Howard Miller Library and Community Center and $4.35 million for City Hall.
“I think the next step in the process is prioritizing what needs to be done,” Assistant City Manager Kevin Plockmeyer said. “I mean, you look at the library or City Hall or the public safety building, and setting that timeframe – what (are) the priorities, what projects make sense to do with each other, can we get some economies of scale if we’re just doing mechanicals in all the buildings … that’s something that we like to use a professional (for).”
The contract with Tower Pinkster includes such scope elements as refining project priorities, conceptual design and cost validation, as well as “development of a coordinated capital improvement planning framework.”
“This work will provide council with clearer information regarding project sequencing, potential phasing, and alignment with the city’s long-term financial capacity before any future construction decisions are considered,” Plockmeyer wrote in a memo to the council.
The facilities condition audit and space use analysis recommended replacing the roof at both City Hall and the Howard Miller building, both of which have had leaks in recent years. It also called for such City Hall changes as moving the mayor’s office to the second level, the clerk’s office to be moved to the first level and creating a larger conference room on the first level. In addition, it also proposed updating mechanicals, reconfiguring meeting space downstairs and renovating the offices behind the checkout desk of the library.
That same study also recommended more than $4 million in improvements to the public safety building and more than $6.88 million in the street maintenance garage.
The city put out a request for proposals for the professional services contract, with three firms submitting bids. Tower Pinkster’s bid was less than a third of the two competing bids, Plockmeyer said.
“The reason they were so much lower than the other respondents is that the fact they did the facilities condition and space use analysis,” Plockmeyer said. “They have a lot of the background data. They have the architectural plans ready to go.”
Over the next six months, Tower Pinkster will meet with city department heads and managers to try to put together a list of projects to prioritize, and then present that list to City Council “so that we can use that as kind of our guide, as we move into this implementation phase of making these building improvements, and just have them as a sounding board to assist us in that process,” Plockmeyer said.
Funding for the professional services contract will come out of the city building fund, Plockmeyer said.
Zeeland Record
The city of Zeeland will retain a consultant to help local leaders determine which city-owned buildings should get first priority for improvements.
The City Council Monday night approved awarding a professional services contract to Grand Rapids-based Tower Pinkster in the amount of $24,000 for implementation planning services related to a facilities condition audit and space use analysis that the firm had done for the city in 2023-24.
The council also approved a budget amendment in the amount of $30,000 for the contract. The project had not been included in the city’s current budget.
In its facilities condition audit and space use analysis presented to City Council one year ago this week, Tower Pinkster said that more than $24 million was needed to upgrade city-owned facilities, including more than $8.2 million for the Howard Miller Library and Community Center and $4.35 million for City Hall.
“I think the next step in the process is prioritizing what needs to be done,” Assistant City Manager Kevin Plockmeyer said. “I mean, you look at the library or City Hall or the public safety building, and setting that timeframe – what (are) the priorities, what projects make sense to do with each other, can we get some economies of scale if we’re just doing mechanicals in all the buildings … that’s something that we like to use a professional (for).”
The contract with Tower Pinkster includes such scope elements as refining project priorities, conceptual design and cost validation, as well as “development of a coordinated capital improvement planning framework.”
“This work will provide council with clearer information regarding project sequencing, potential phasing, and alignment with the city’s long-term financial capacity before any future construction decisions are considered,” Plockmeyer wrote in a memo to the council.
The facilities condition audit and space use analysis recommended replacing the roof at both City Hall and the Howard Miller building, both of which have had leaks in recent years. It also called for such City Hall changes as moving the mayor’s office to the second level, the clerk’s office to be moved to the first level and creating a larger conference room on the first level. In addition, it also proposed updating mechanicals, reconfiguring meeting space downstairs and renovating the offices behind the checkout desk of the library.
That same study also recommended more than $4 million in improvements to the public safety building and more than $6.88 million in the street maintenance garage.
The city put out a request for proposals for the professional services contract, with three firms submitting bids. Tower Pinkster’s bid was less than a third of the two competing bids, Plockmeyer said.
“The reason they were so much lower than the other respondents is that the fact they did the facilities condition and space use analysis,” Plockmeyer said. “They have a lot of the background data. They have the architectural plans ready to go.”
Over the next six months, Tower Pinkster will meet with city department heads and managers to try to put together a list of projects to prioritize, and then present that list to City Council “so that we can use that as kind of our guide, as we move into this implementation phase of making these building improvements, and just have them as a sounding board to assist us in that process,” Plockmeyer said.
Funding for the professional services contract will come out of the city building fund, Plockmeyer said.
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