News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
With construction booming across Central Oregon, the City of Sisters may have to wait awhile to put out bids on a new City Hall.
“It’s not a good bidding climate at all,” said City Manager Eileen Stein.
Stein said that “in the last week or two the architect (Scott Steele Associates) has been shopping the project with local contractors.”
The word that came back was that, with everyone frantically busy, bids would come in very high if they come in at all.
“If we put the project out for bid now, bid prices would probably come in $10 to $40 per square foot more than we budgeted,” Stein said.
With that in mind, she said, Steele is suggesting waiting to put out bids till the pace of construction cools off with the winter’s chill in January and Stein said she will recommend that to the city council.
Stein does not view the delay as a setback. She said the city anticipated moving sometime late next summer in any case and a springtime start would still allow that.
“They say it’ll take six to seven months to build, so we’re still talking about an August-September time frame,” she said. “I don’t think we’re losing any ground by just waiting till January.”
She said the council has already rejected reducing the planned 9,200-square-foot footprint of the building or scrimping on the quality of construction.
“I was pleased with that,” she said. “They don’t want to shortchange us for the future.”
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