Library Update

Greetings District 6 Neighbors,

The big news going into this council week is the opening of the second round of bids for the new library. Bids were opened last Thursday, June 15, and reviewed by the project team (made up of Mayor Woodford, Facilities Director Gazza and members of his staff, Library Director Rortvedt and members of her staff, Finance Director Ohman and members of her staff, City Attorney Behrens and legal staff, plus team members from Friends of the Appleton Library, SOM and Boldt). Once it was determined that the bids came in under budget, we had a special Finance Committee meeting last night where we voted to recommend accepting the bids. We needed a special meeting in order to get the item approved and on the agenda for the full Common Council meeting tomorrow (6/21) as we had already voted to cancel the July 5 meeting. The team would like to begin construction as soon as possible to take advantage of as much good weather as possible before winter.

As we all remember, global inflation, material and labor shortages caused the bids for the original library design to be completely unfeasible. The team went back to the drawing board and reworked the design in hopes of reducing the overall cost of the project in order to stay within the committed budget. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, along with the Boldt Corporation, came up with a modified design that reduced the overall square footage and eliminated some features (including, sadly, the children’s garden) in hopes of getting bids that were within our project budget.

A few numbers:

City funds (borrowing and fund balance from prior year)	$26.4 million
ARPA funds (designated for broadband)	$ 2.0 million
Friend of the Appleton Public Library capital campaign	$12.0 million
Total Project budget	$40.4 million

 

How the bids came in:

BIDS
Bids:
Construction Contracts	$24,848,957
Contingency	$1,000,000
Geo-Thermal Allowance	$1,200,000
Furniture, Technology and Signage	$3,800,000
Construction Manager Fee	$139,630
General Conditions	$1,695,017
General Requirement	$1,525,091
Bond	$180,115
Insurances	$353,884
Subtotal:	$34,742,694
Professional Fees:
Architectural Fees	$4,167,451
SOM Reimbursables	$105,000
Fund-Raising Campaign	$450,000
Surveyor, LIDAR, Environmental, Commissioning, Testing	$347,765
Subtotal:	$5,070,216
Temporary Library Costs
Subtotal:	$542,275
	$40,355,185

 

The allowance for Geothermal heating/cooling is due to bids not being received for that bid package – the most likely contractor is actually working on the geothermal for Valley Transit facility. Director Gazza believes the allowance to be a good number and the team is confident that by reaching further than the original bids that we will get a contractor for these wells. Geothermal is an important part of this project, because, while more expensive initially, it provides huge operational cost savings and is a greener solution to heating and cooling.

The architect’s fee for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill increased from what we voted on in 2021 because it is based on the total project cost, which increased after adding the ARPA funds and the Friends funds to the project budget. There was also some additional cost for the redesign. We heard some comments that they didn’t think the cost of the redesign was justified; that SOM had “overdesigned” and should thus be responsible for any changes to lower the cost. I am not sure that anyone who has tried to get a home project done in the last three years, or even buy a vehicle or major appliance, could think that a firm could predict the insane way that prices, labor shortages and supply chain problem would affect things.

We also got an update on the Friends of the Appleton Library fundraising campaign. There have been a number of questions about project funding if the fundraising goal is not met. In the fall of 2021, the Friends conducted a feasibility study for the library. Quoting from the update “The study results indicated favorable views of Appleton Public Library and Friends, a compelling case for support, positive views of the design, and an understanding of the need to invest in the library to serve the community now and in the future.”

Based on the study, the Friends embarked on a $12 million fundraising campaign. They have already secured $8 million in pledges in just the “quiet phase” of the campaign. These pledges are from major donors who are approached before the campaign expands to the public. They have a goal of raising 90% of the funding before the public phase starts later this year – when regular folks can start writing checks. The presentation gave me a lot of confidence that the goal would be achieved.

The city committed to $26.4 million in borrowing; however, with the $2 million in ARPA funding, some funds remaining in last year’s budget, and the possibility of some grants (we have already received a $140,000 energy grant that could be allocated to the library), the total borrowing should be closer to $19 million.

It’s been a long 15 years that our community has been talking about a new library and I am truly happy that, assuming the bids are approved at tonight’s Common Council meeting, we’ll see work beginning on this important center for our community.