Paducah city officials voted again Tuesday night on suspending a $1.1 million contract for the proposed recreation/aquatic center until January 2021.
The city’s already paid $675,351.14 on Lose Design’s design and construction management services contract, City Manager Jim Arndt confirmed to The Sun. He previously shared an inaccurate figure of $268,575.87 with the newspaper, before the July 14 commission meeting.
“I gave the wrong number and then (mayoral candidate) George Bray asked me about it and I said, ‘Well, let me double-check that number.’ ‘Yeah, that’s what I got,’ ” Arndt said.
Arndt said he then triple-checked with a city employee and the finance team.
They informed him it was the wrong number. He explained he didn’t have three invoices, which weren’t in his file.
Effective May 1, Arndt temporarily suspended the contract for 88 days, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and related economic concerns.
The Nashville-based firm had completed concept work on the project, while it’d also been moving into final construction drawings.
The city commission adopted an amended municipal order Tuesday that both continues the contract suspension until January and allows Arndt to continue “due diligence” on the project, which could have associated costs. It was approved by a 3-2 vote with commissioners Richard Abraham and Gerald Watkins voting no.
During the meeting, Abraham made a motion to rescind amendments to the order to where it’d only pause the contract until January.
He cited different concerns, such as paying more funds on a project that many city commission candidates have publicly said they won’t support. The motion failed by a 3-2 vote, with Abraham and Watkins voting to support Abraham’s motion to rescind amendments.
In his remarks, Watkins explained he supports pausing the project until January, allowing the new commission to make the decision for several reasons.
“I don’t mind the city manager continuing to collect information that would help the new commission in making the best decision for the city and our citizens,” Watkins added.
“However, I do not support spending anymore taxpayer money on the project.”
A second commission vote was required on whether to adopt the amended order, due to a procedural issue after Commissioner Brenda McElroy introduced amendments to the original order during its July 14 meeting. Under the amendments, Arndt’s due diligence work may include:
• Creation of a conceptual build-out for prospective tenants.
• Creation of community focus groups for the project with an emphasis on inclusion and programming.
• Research on financial assistance and facility naming rights.
• Research on facility costs with an emphasis on understanding COVID-19’s impact on the project’s pro forma.
City documents state that due diligence-related expenditures shall be done within limits of the city’s “small purchase plan” and within the city manager’s procurement restrictions, unless otherwise authorized by the commission. Arndt explained to The Sun that the city could spend up to $30,000 under the limits, but he doesn’t think it’ll reach that amount.
“I got some prices from Lose on that, but it really just depends on what we want them to do and how things are developing,” he told The Sun.
“If we locate a tenant that’s very serious about coming into this space and we want to do some conceptual design plans for floor spacing, I got Lose to agree to doing that for up to two tenants for a flat fee of $7,500.”
Arndt said a community focus group meeting could cost $5,000, while it’d be $5,000 for assistance with with naming rights. It’d cost around $2,000 to update the pro forma with The Sports Facilities Advisory.
“That’s kind of what we’re looking at now,” he said. “But that’s only really when and if we believe it’s necessary to kind of pursue that.”
