The 20th change order for a $12.6-million renovation of Wildwood’s Millennium Park was too much Monday for city commissioners.
They also questioned a $365,500 design contract with Kimley-Horn for relocation of a water main along U.S. 301.
Both proposals were approved on 4-1 votes with Commissioner Joe Elliott voting no.
“This has been beat-up-the-engineers day and I think it was time to do that,” said Mayor Ed Wolf, adding that he was tired of paying for change orders. “We can’t have an open checkbook.”
The $165,689 change order from Kingdom Construction involved increased column pad sizes for the basketball gym foundation to meet steel building requirements. Four football concrete dugout slabs also were added.
Wolf said the city accepted a Millennium Park construction bid that was $3 million lower than the next bidder.
Commissioner David Fontaine asked why the construction company didn’t wait to price the pads until the requirements were available.
“Why is that on us because you gave us a bad number?” he asked a representative of CPH, the project engineer.
Elliott said the city is going to make mistakes.
“We are going to put processes in place that prevent that from reoccurring,” he said.
For the Millennium Park contract, Wildwood accepted the lowest bidder instead of using a contractor-at-risk method that would have put the burden of change orders on the contractor.
Despite the change orders, City Manager Jason McHugh said the project remains under budget.
“If we had gone with the other (lowest) bid, I guarantee it would have been worse,” he said.
Commissioners also questioned the $365,500 Kimley-Horn contract for a water main relocation.
The relocation is due to the widening of U.S. 301 between the Florida Turnpike and Warm Springs Avenue.
“This looks like it’s out of line,” Wolf said of the cost. “There’s got to be a better way to spend taxpayer money.”