Council rejects bids to demolish collapsed buildings

The demolition of the collapsed buildings on South Marion Avenue will not take place at the end of May as originally scheduled. The Washington City Council debated the matter at its meeting Wednesday night. The council reviewed two bids for the demolition but voted to reject both. The council authorized City Administrator Dave Plyman to go out for bids again, but this time the bidders will not have to abate the asbestos in the building. The city will take care of that separately.

The two contractors that bid on the project were Cornerstone Excavating Inc. of Washington and Metro Demolition of Des Moines. The city requested bids from them for three slightly different projects: one in which the buildings are torn down and the common wall with Dr. Sergey Floryanovich?s business is covered in painted plywood; one where the plywood is put on and then covered with painted metal siding; and one where the existing plywood is removed and replaced with fiber-cement board.

Cornerstone?s bids on these three projects were about $132,000, $134,000 and $142,000, respectively, while Metro bid about $140,000, $150,000 and $145,000.

City Engineer Rob McDonald recommended that the council choose either the metal siding or fiber-cement board options because these would last longer than the plywood. He recommended that the council hire Cornerstone Excavating.

Mayor Sandra Johnson said she was surprised to see such high bids. The city spent about $88,000 to clean up the debris from the buildings? collapse in 2006. She said she expected the bids for this demolition to be comparable, namely $100,000 or less.

?We don?t have this kind of money,? said Johnson.

City Administrator Dave Plyman said that, although it is a tough pill to swallow, the city will have to pay for demolition. He said that if the city expected a developer to pay for demolition, the city would not get any takers.

The city had instructed the bidders to complete the demolition project in late May or early June to coincide with the vacation of Floryanovich, who runs a business next door. McDonald told the council at a prior meeting that if the demolition interrupted Floryanovich?s business, he could make a claim against the city.

?If we went beyond that time frame (of his vacation), he would want money from us to cover his salaries,? said McDonald on Wednesday.

Johnson asked McDonald, ?If there were construction going on, would he also want money from the construction company for impeding his services??

Plyman remarked, ?We?re handling the common wall like we?re handling the common walls on the new library project. We just bore the expense for both properties on either side of the library. But we did not compensate neighboring properties for any losses because of demolition or construction activities. I suspect that, had we offered that, it would have been very expensive.?

?They (Floryanovich and his employees) will still have access to the front of their building,? said Plyman. ?It?s not that large a project. It shouldn?t take that many weeks to bring the buildings down.?

Plyman told the council that if it sent the project back for bids, the new bids could come back even higher. He suggested the council make changes to the project, namely that it withdraw the requirement to remove the asbestos and that it relax the timeline for the project?s completion, to give the contractor more time than just that during Floryanovich?s vacation. Plyman said that, because the council rejected the bids, the project cannot be completed during Floryanovich?s vacation.