City receives bids on new city hall contruction

Eight bidders threw their hats into the ring for the construction of a new Sisters City Hall.

Kirby Nagelhout Construction of Bend was the lowest conforming bidder at $1.367 million, according to City Manager Eileen Stein. The city council is expected to vote on acceptance of the bid at its Thursday, March 23, meeting.

Nagelhout’s bid came in just under the city’s estimate of $1.389 million.

“It’s right on target,” Stein said.

Stein said the city will finalize plans to issue a note for $1.4 million to cover construction costs.

“We are pledging the city’s full faith and credit on this note,” she said. “It’s all the resources of the city; essentially we’re pledging the general fund.”

Stein noted that a variety of city accounts will be used to pay debt service on the note — water, garbage and the like. That is justified by the fact that the new City Hall will serve as “corporate headquarters” for those departments.

The city council has authorized using up to $487,000 in urban renewal debt in paying the $2.6 million total costs of the city hall project (including land acquisition, design, site improvement and other costs).

However, Mayor Dave Elliott said that at the present time, with the construction bid so close to the city’s target, it does not appear that it will be necessary to use any of the renewal funds to help finance the project.

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

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