Bridgeport city council selects Berryman Park contractor

BRIDGEPORT – Bid openings for the Berryman Park Renovation Project contractor – part of the Community Revitalization SR-173 Corridor Plan - were opened on May 21. While all the bids submitted exceeded the city engineer’s project estimate of $404,638. the lowest among those came from JM Pacific Construction, Inc., in Moses Lake.

A special city council meeting on May 22 awarded the bid to JM. The next step is for city engineer Gray & Osborne, the city attorney, and the state Recreation and Conservation Office (RCO), which provided the grant funds for the renovation, to review elements of the actual contract. 

"Generally, when a contract of this type is awarded, the contractor purchases all necessary equipment, installs it, and handles all details," said clerk/treasurer Judy Brown. "In this instance, the city purchased all the equipment – the bathrooms and playground equipment – via a state bid to make the project affordable for the city to cover. Then, all bids came in higher than expected. The park project estimates were calculated three years ago, and costs since have risen sharply, more than estimates allowed. One of the dilemmas now facing the city is how is it going to cover the shortfall?”

Brown recalled that the city faced a similar challenge when it decided to build the Conklin Landing RV Park in conjunction with Douglas PUD in 2017. The city was awarded an RCO grant to cover its portion of the costs but came up short.

“When it came toward the end, and we knew exactly how much money we needed, we went back to RCO and asked if they had any money they could help us with,” said Brown. “So, it’s a possibility.”

Mike Maltais: 360-333-8483 or michael@ward.media